《Pathfinder》 Chapter 1: The Bomb "When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb." -Julius Robert Oppenheimer ____________________________________________________________________________________ Jackson Wellington Greenweld Technologies Tennessee, United North American Continent, 2372 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack Wellington leaned back at his desk and sighed, the remnants of his lunch scattered about him. ¡®It¡¯s been two years since they stopped making those Chinese food containers and they are still using them for take-out. How many did they stock up on before the environmental regulations kicked in?¡¯ he mused poking at the carton in question with a fork. He was interrupted by a flashing news bulletin on the holoscreen in front of him. He tapped it to expand what was being said and a new reporter in front of the UN building flashed up. While the sound was muted, the subtitles showed what needed to be known. The talks between China and Russia over the newly expanding Siberian oil fields had broken down, again, the same story for the past few decades. The trouble started a hundred and seventy years before, when the Islamic State in its quest for freedom had stolen a nuclear warhead from a Pakistani military base. The stolen plutonium was used to make a dirty bomb, since they couldn¡¯t activate it normally. Deciding to use their new weapon to make a statement, they used several operatives to smuggle it into Saudi Arabia, intending to strike one of the United States¡¯ airbases there. What they didn¡¯t know was that when they made the bomb, it slowly went mass critical as they were shipping it. Thus it ended up in a premature fireball 200 miles away from the nearest US base, and the mission was a complete failure. However, the bomb went off in the middle of the most productive oil field the Saudi¡¯s had, and turned thirty percent of it into melted iron and steel. An additional forty percent of the field became too radioactive to work in, or even salvage, which cut in half the amount of exports Saudi Arabia could produce in the span of a single afternoon. The resulting shock hit the world hard, and sent governments scrambling, as the world¡¯s biggest oil supplier suddenly went dry. ¡®At least it provided us the kick in the ass we needed to get off foreign oil, though it was more like the oil itself was turned off.¡¯ Jack thought. He remembered learning how they coped with the aftermath in school. How the United States and Canada formed a union much like the old EU, to better trade the oil from the Athabasca Sands and create a united energy front for research. France finally got the support it needed to get ITER, the first fusion reactor, online from the international European community, alleviating most of its power needs overnight. Russia had the best result from the Saudi disaster, they found vast oil reserves in the uncharted forests of Siberia, and eventually became the top supplier. In twenty years or so, the major powers of the world had created various sustainable energy programs, had their oil needs filled from elsewhere, or a combination of the two. That is all the major powers except China. The oil fields the Chinese expected to find in their western provinces never panned out. Instead they were forced to watch as the Russian Bear got stronger while the Red Dragon withered, choking on the high costs of imported oil. This caused them to look north to the thinly defended border of Siberia with covetous looks. ¡®At least it was thinly defended at the time,¡¯ Jack inwardly chuckled, ¡®now a-days it makes the Korean DMZ look like a kid friendly petting zoo.¡¯ The past century had been brutal to the area, with twelve incursions by the Chinese that the Russians repulsed every time. Russia used their newfound wealth to build the largest defensive network the world had ever seen. Along their entire border with China, and several of the smaller countries the Chinese were not shy about rolling over, a massive defensive belt was created. Laser Point defenses guarded against air and missile attacks. The tips of the newly developed railgun poked out of bunkers, capable of throwing tungsten darts at near the speed of sound. The Chinese continued to grow their juggernaut of a military, hoping to one day throw enough bodies at the line to break through or ease their problems. However it wasn¡¯t enough, the slow disintegration of order in China as the stopgap measures failed to live up to demand continued and the Party was cracking under the pressure. The Great Energy Revolution, similar to the Cultural Revolution decades before, eliminated much of the dissent, but it wasn¡¯t enough. The ramblings of a man in a little red book only meant so much as the lights went out and necessities couldn¡¯t be paid for due to transportation costs. The United North American Continent, as the union of the United States and Canada was termed, began to worry at the growing desperation of the Chinese government, and their general instability. They began to sink vast quantities of time and money into projects that would help fight the red tide, a tide that numbered in the tens of billions. This kind of technological race hadn¡¯t been experienced since the Second World War so many years before. ¡®And that¡¯s why I¡¯m sitting here in this lab today¡¯ Jack thought as he finished reading the report on the holoscreen. He was working at a lab out in Tennessee called Greenweld Technologies. It was a boring name that caused people to think of Greenpeace worthy technologies and concealed its true nature as a development lab for the UNAC military. Greenweld was concerned with making cybernetic enhancements to the military, trying to create the modern day super soldier. Jack¡¯s project was no exception and suited his background in Mechanical and Bioengineering. They also wanted to tap into his combat experience as a Captain in the 82nd Airborne Division, and create something that would actually be useful in the field not just the lab. The project Jack was involved with was to create a system of nanites that would live inside the soldier, augmenting his abilities. A couple of the programmer s of the project had nicknamed them ¡°The Zerg¡± a reference to a game that was in its 5th sequel. Jack was involved with making sure the little buggers could thrive inside the human body, and provide the augmentations as needed by the host. One version of the serum was designed for combat capabilities, the other for a more of a support role, at least in theory. They both were still in the design and testing phase. It was challenging work but worth it and he was interested in the support serum especially. Jack was a Combat Engineer, and having a field assist would be extraordinarily handy in his line of work. Working at Greenweld was a temporary assignment, a political assignment. The next few minutes were spent answering emails and avoiding a budget meeting that was going to be particularly nasty. The bean counters never seemed to understand how expensive Nano-scale centrifuges and assemblers could be, even with the pictures drawn out for them on the PowerPoint slides¡­ Jack had just grabbed his mug to refill his iced tea, the state beverage of Tennessee besides bourbon, when another researcher poked his head in his office. ¡°Hey Jack, we¡¯re going to try Tank III again in about fifteen minutes, meet you downstairs in ten.¡± The man said this in an excited voice and then quickly vanished out the door again. Jack laughed at the retreating figure, another Bioengineer named Nate Horning, and how enthusiastic he was about testing the various serums of Zerg. Leveraging his willowy frame out from his comfortable chair and scooping his mug from his desk, Jack left his office. He walked into a steel gray corridor that was lined with doors, most of them closed. He turned left just as his shut with a soft hiss and thump from a pneumatic pump. He walked to the break room, acquired some tea that the kitchen staff prepared that day, and made his way to the elevator. ¡®It sure is nice to have your own in-house cafeteria, staffed by people who could actually cook. This is in stark contrast to army and university life.¡¯ Shuddering at the thought of the generic chow, the elevator arrived. Selecting one of the lowest level ones Jack sipped at his tea during the high speed ride, knees slightly buckling at the deceleration toward the end. Tightly gripping his mug, lest it join the countless others that had been claimed by the high speed elevator and negligent riders as it slowed, he waited for the doors to open. They revealed a corridor, carved more from the Appalachian Mountains than built by man, lit by banks of recessed lights. ¡°The evil mad scientist bunker is complete, time for experiments to commence¡­¡± he muttered as he briskly walked down the corridor, white lab coat fluttering behind him. Passing through a heavy blast door, he entered into the control room that oversaw the Zerg production and storage. Inside a holo-display was showcasing the new 3D structure of Zerg, which looked like a mechanical hornet. They had done several tests on different forms and found small wings acted as airfoils that could ride the small currents inside the bloodstream of the host. Keeping with the naming theme, the holo-display showed a royal purple colored Zerg, but the test batches they had created were a dark gray, not that you could see them anyways once they were in solution. Jack noticed Nate standing in from of the large glass window that overlooked the storage and testing site. Walking up to him and looking down into the cavern below, he saw the current two batches of Zerg swirling around in their respective glass tanks, which were large enough to fit a man inside. One batch was blue while the other crimson in color. Noting the difference in color, Jack asked Nate ¡°weren¡¯t they the same color this morning? What did you guys do to them?¡± Nate laughed as his confusion responding ¡°After eight or so hours one of them will change color, we have no idea why at this point, but it seems to be which serum type it¡¯s based on. It¡¯s just another thing to add to the list.¡± The list in question was displayed in the back of the room, showing the various questions and partial solutions the team had come up with over the past five months. They still had a long way to go, but at least they had a working prototype. That and their lab didn¡¯t blow up like the guys who were working on the exosuit project, they were let go after trashing a half of a billion dollars of hardware. ¡°Hey guys,¡± a relaxed voice from behind them prompted them both to turn around, ¡°we¡¯re about to start the second round of testing for the third batch made this week.¡± The voice belonged to a tall, scruffy man, who looked about 25 years old. His name was Kanis Ja¡¯heed, his family immigrated after the Saudi Disater, and he was the youngest member of the team. Kanis was a computer engineer and in charge of several of the programs that enabled Zerg to interact with various cells in the human body, mainly the muscle and nerves as they required the most care. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Both of the men walked over to his console and watched as the commands were sent to begin the test. Right as the start button was to be pressed, the blast doors opened again. A petite woman entered with fiery red hair. Her eyes seemed to spark and sizzle as she seized up the three men. ¡°You idiots were going to run the experiment without me, again!¡± she exploded. ¡°How am I supposed to do my job properly if you three won¡¯t even tell when you start!¡± The voice tore through the control room with the force of a grenade. With his eardrums ringing and being disoriented Jack stammered ¡°Nate told me! I figured he mentioned it to you as well!¡± The glare sent from his right, where Nate was standing, could have melted steel. Jackson endured it though and watched in amusement as the woman started walking in that direction starting a new tirade against his coworker. Looking back at Kanis, whose eyes were still spinning from the entrance, he muttered ¡°Andrea the human flashbang, it¡¯s a pity we couldn¡¯t sell that skill to the army.¡± After a while Andrea ran out of steam. Breathless the biochemist said to the other two ¡°I feel much better now, let¡¯s start the trial.¡± Nate staggered over, looking like he was run over by a tank. ¡°If you ever do that to me again, I will throw you in the next batch of Zerg,¡± he said. Jack defended himself with the simple phrase ¡°you dug your own grave there buddy.¡± Looking back at Andrea and noticing the head of steam building from the delay, Jack hurriedly said ¡°Kanis, start the trial.¡± A few button clicks later they all went to stand by the window to watch. Two self-propelled carts containing a slab of beef floated in from the freezer next door. Once in front of their respective tanks valves were opened allowing a single drop of Zerg solution onto the slab. A bright flash erupted from the left one, in front of the crimson tank. The slab of meat had caught fire from the Zerg solution being dropped onto it. The one on the right, in front of the blue one had been flash frozen to a temperature close to absolute zero, according to the readout on that side. ¡°Well that¡¯s a new one,¡± Nate busted out laughing as the ash remains of the meat were wheeled out of the left side. Enduring a withering look from Andrea he turned around and looked at the List. Written in bold letters at the top was the line ¡°Why the hell won¡¯t it bind with anything organic???¡± This was the major hitch in the project so far, the nanites worked fine in augmenting the different cells. This was shown by numerous test and simulations. The issue is that they augmented them so much that they caused strange reactions, as shown by the spontaneous combustion earlier. As they pondered this new result a resounding crash from below came as the second frozen slab slipped from its cart and shattered. ¡°Clean up on aisle three,¡± Nate quipped. Jack shot back with ¡°I got it, I like frozen TV dinners anyways,¡± glad for the chance to do something with his hands. He entered the airlock that separated the control room from the testing chamber. They had been working on some pretty nasty stuff on a prior completed, stuff which is banned by international law, and he had been told to forget about it after he arrived. Donning the lime green hazmat suit Jack made his way down the metal catwalk toward the floor below. ¡°Test, test, can you hear me Jack?¡± Andrea¡¯s voice came through the speaker inside the headpiece, this time at a reasonable level. ¡°I gotcha loud and clear,¡± he replied back. ¡°Good, try not to catch fire or freeze to death down there, I don¡¯t want to be left with these two.¡± Suppressing a grin he teased ¡°Thanks for worrying, Mom.¡± Getting a huff in his ear Jack continued down the catwalk to the main floor of the chamber. He really enjoyed working with the team, their quirks made going to work every day bearable. Then again it wasn¡¯t what he signed up to do, but he¡¯d been spared a court martial to come and work here, and would be released from the sidelines after this project was up. He looked forward to getting back into the field. Activating the automated cleaning bots stored along the back wall took a few minutes after he reached the bottom of the catwalk. While they were booting up, he spent the rest of the time inspecting the Zerg system for any leaks. ¡®Yea we don¡¯t want it eating through the floor now do we? We¡¯re two stories above the fusion reactor that powers this place, if that goes off it would make the Middle East look like a firecracker.¡¯ As he was walking around to inspect the rear of the containment system, klaxon alarms began blaring all over the place. Jackson jumped up in surprise, bashing his head on the valve above the one he was inspecting. Grimacing in pain, he called upstairs ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± There was no reply from above. A bright red exclamation point flashed in visor screen. ¡°Show message¡± he grunted, as he slowly climbed over the maze of pipes forming the Zerg System. The message read: The Peoples Republic of China has launched a full-scale offensive against the UNAC and Russian Federation. All civilians are to remain indoors at this time. Military personal are to report to their assigned stations and await further orders. Cursing under his breath Jack began to move through the maze of pipes at a much brisker pace. Breaking out into the main section of the cavern his eardrums nearly burst as Andrea was screaming at him to get his attention. ¡°Stop yelling! I¡¯m here! The pipes must have blocked the signal. What the hell is going on?¡± He roared as she took a breath. Not wasting time explaining she opened a video link to the main monitor in the control room. A Chinese spokesman was standing at a podium addressing the assembled reporters at the UN. ¡°The People¡¯s Republic has always advocated peace, however the world has not,¡± he began his speech. ¡°We will show that we are not afraid to do what we must to ensure our survival. This decision did not come lightly; we will show you the error of your ways in disrespecting the Red Dragon. Your military bases, cities, and research institutions that secretly feed your military with new hardware will burst in the light of a new dawn.¡± As he finished his speech he looked skyward, the camera following. A dark smudge was visible in the air before bursting into light. It showed the beginnings of a mushroom cloud before a static snow replaced it. Jackson shut off the link and threw himself up the catwalk, desperate to make it back inside the control room. However, at that moment, the earth began to tremble and cracks stared to appear inside the cavern. A massive chunk of earth smashed down from above missing him by inches, but destroying the catwalk back to the airlock. The shaking dislodged the bolts holding the catwalk to the wall sending him vaulting into space, holding onto the handrail for dear life. Before he entered the billowing dust cloud below, the glass from the control room blew out as the ceiling above collapsed in. The shards ripped through his suit, creating a large gash across his chest as he fell below. Jackson hit the ground and blackness enveloped him. Slowly Jack clamored back into the world of conciseness. In front of him, behind the dust cloud he could see through the cracked visor there was a hissing and sloshing sound. As he took stock of his surroundings he noted the dust had help clot the large slice on his chest. Painfully he eased himself up, only to immediately collapse back down as he tried to take a step. His right ankle gave out, and he judged it to be fractured or badly sprained. Gasping from the pain he managed to splutter ¡°Andrea? Kanis or Nate? Is anyone up there?¡± but only received hissing static in reply. ¡°Great, best job I ever had, totally worth getting sent here. Visor show thermal mode¡± he ordered the battered piece of gear. It flicked once or twice before settling into a vison of blue and light orange. After further investigation, he noted the light orange came from the shattered cleaning bots. Deciding them to be of no use he looked forward toward the hissing and froze. The Zerg solution had broken loose of its holding tanks. They had been cracked open like eggshells by the falling debris. The visor showed a sea of bright red, representing high thermal activity as the Zerg solution rapidly ate through the mess of pipes that surrounded it. He watched in horror as it finished vaporizing the metallic piping and then began to make its way through the rocks damming it on that half of the chamber. Scrambling to his feet and finding the leg of a destroyed cleaning bot to use as a makeshift crutch, Jackson made for higher ground. Using some of the bots as leverage, he climbed onto the pile of rocks spilling out from the control room. Halfway up the earth trembled again and he felt a sickening lurch. The rock dislodged and he was thrown down into the combined, purple colored Zerg solution. As he went under he was assaulted by the burning sensation all throughout his body, it felt as if his nerve endings were on fire. The mask that covered his face began to leak purple drops through the cracks in its face. They slowly widened as the serum ate through the glass as well, etching it. Another crack resounded against the back of his head as the current swept him along, allowing blackness to embrace him again. News broadcasts around the world were in a frenzied state. They aired the destruction of New York again and again as well as the sites of other attacks. Washington D.C. , Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago, and Los Angeles were all destroyed. Many of the military bases and installations had been hit as well, Cheyenne Mountain taking a barrage of eight missiles. However, the damage was not as severe as it could have been. The Chinese launched an attack on both Russia and the UNAC at the same time but didn¡¯t have enough resources to destroy both. The two former Cold War enemies turned their respective arsenals against mainland China, rendering it unfit for habitation for the next few thousand years. In the midst of this chaos and ground war that erupted against the scattered remains of the Chinese army. many of the smaller research institutions that were hit were overlooked. Greenweld was no exception. The only ones who mourned their loss were the families of the departed and the UNAC military who lamented the loss of several billion dollars of funding. The site was closed off to the public. Greenweld and its¡¯ 1700 former employees faded into obscurity, their only grave maker a large sinkhole formed when the building collapsed. The site vanished back into the Tennessee backwoods, only a few short miles from the old Oak Ridge site, the cause of its demise. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Thanks for reading. If you find any mistakes, let me know. Chapter 2: Legacy of the Void ¡°String theory envisions a multiverse in which our universe is one slice of bread in a big cosmic loaf. The other slices would be displaced from ours in some extra dimension of space.¡± ¨CBrian Greene ____________________________________________________________________________________ Greenweld Technologies Tennessee, Former United North American Continent, 2372 _______________________________________________________________________________ Deep within the wreckage of Greenweld laboratories, there was a room nearly filled with shattered machines and rubble. In a corner partially shielded by a large chunk of reinforced concrete that fell down from two stories above a holo-screen dimly displayed the following message: 14:52 ¨CSystem Restarting, checking host¡¯s condition ¡­. ¡­¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­. 14:57 ¨CAnalysis Complete. Status is broken down into the following conditions. ? Host¡¯s Physical Form: Destroyed ? Host¡¯s Mental State: Inactive ? Host¡¯s Spiritual Status: Operational 15:00 ¨CPrimary Directive, ensure host¡¯s survival in any way possible: Complete 15:01 ¨CSecondary Directive, ensure entire survival: Failed 15:03 ¨CScanning surroundings to determine location ? Error: GPS Signal not found ? Error: Star Map Invalid ? Error: Magnetic Field non-standard for compass reading 15:10 ¨CLocation Unable to determine, system resuming standby mode until host regains consciousness. The screen flickered again, waiting for human acknowledgement of the message in vain. At that moment, the fusion reactor shut down due to damage it received in the nuclear strike, and the message vanished into the air. ??????? ?????????? Unknown, After the Blast ____________________________________________________________________________________ It slowly phased back into existence. As its eyes flicked open, it took stock of its surroundings, or lack thereof. All around for as far as it could see, was inky blackness. This was punctured by violet or navy streaks of lightning at random intervals. The bolts arced through the space, splintering into smaller ones before disappearing like a brief flame. Slightly shocked by the strangeness of its surroundings, the entirety decided to look at its own form. A ghostly deep purple mist greeted it as it looked down. Eyes widening, the mist took shape of a torso with arms but no legs, instead trailing off into the purple vapor. As it watched the vapor billow around it, a sudden strong feeling overcame it. Purple, the color purple¡­. A rush of thick liquid? A game? Images flitted through its¡¯ mind, but quickly vanished as the memory eluded it. The entity decided to explore its surroundings, searching for a clue to its past, while floating forward toward the oblivion in front of it. It continued on into the darkness, for how long it could not tell. Time was meaningless here, not that the entity cared. It was consumed in the search for what it was and how it arrived here. A soft scuffling to the left caused it to pause, peering into the gloom. With a soft click, like a key fitting into a lock, its eyes suddenly were able to see at a farther distance with astonishing clarity. Wondering in surprise it muttered out loud ¡°well that¡¯s interesting,¡± the first words it had spoken in the void. Shaking its head at the reference to a movie about a crazy pirate and his black sailed ship, its father had shown him long ago it moved on. A few minutes later it stopped, realization dawning on its face from what happened. Its father. Concentrating on that thought, a voice firm with a hint of mischief about it floated through its mind, ¡°Atta boy Jackson, show them what you got.¡± It smiled at the memory and then began to piece back together his life¡¯s story, one memory at a time. After all, he had all the time he needed. Jackson Wellington Unknown, After the Blast ____________________________________________________________________________________ Jack slowly stretched in what he had deemed his ¡°ghost form¡± and sighed. It had taken a lot of hard effort but he finally managed to piece his memories back together. He started the cycle again, trying to make sure he hadn¡¯t missed anything important. He might be dead, at least based on his current condition and surroundings he thought he was, but he will be dammed before turning into an empty shell for eternity. He still hadn¡¯t figured out where he was, not that it really mattered in his current ¡°form¡± so to speak. Mostly it was to sate his curiosity at the entire event. He settled back horizontally, ¡®This does have some nice perks to it¡¯ he thought supported by the purple vapor, and began delving into his memories again. Jackson was the second son of Arthur and Sasha Wellington. Arthur, jokingly called ¡°The Duke¡± by his coworkers, told Jackson the story of how he met his mother several times. It was his Dad''s favorite story to tell while they were younger, before it happened. His father was working on one of the new high rise apartments that were popping up everywhere. He was a welder, making sure the carbon steel composite frames used in the booming solar glass industry, were seated properly. The solar glass was part of the UNAC¡¯s policy to have each building be as self-sufficient as possible, part of their national energy program. As they were installing them up on the 47th floor of the building, the frame slipped from the hoist and crushed most of his father¡¯s left foot. ¡°They had to knock me out to get me out of there, and then when I woke up in the hospital there she was,¡± his father would always say this line, ¡°my brunette angel.¡± The brunette doctor in question noticed that Arthur had woken up at this point. While manipulating a screen only she could see, she said to him ¡°You really did a number on this, I¡¯m reconstructing several bones from powder.¡± Arthur laughed and replied ¡°Yea, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be footing a nice big bill for this.¡± It took the doctor a few moments to realize what he said, she snorted and shook her head, accidentally fusing two of the newly formed bones in the process. ¡°Don¡¯t distract me,¡± she snapped, ¡°or I¡¯ll just fuse your entire foot together and be done with it.¡± His father made a lock and key motion with his hands and went silent. His mother had warily watched the burly construction worker out of the corner of her eye for any more antics while she finished up. After she was done, she said to him ¡°Everything is back where it should be, I¡¯ll come check on you tomorrow.¡± While walking out the door Arthur called ¡°Don¡¯t foot-get about me¡± after her retreating figure. Arthur then muttered to himself as he drifted off again, ¡°I¡¯ve totally got a leg up on her.¡± That was the first meeting between his parents. Every time Jackson was told the story by his father his mother would knock his Dad on the head and chastise with ¡°Don¡¯t tell him that! He will learn to pick up girls with terrible puns as well!¡± Sasha Paterinko and Arthur Wellington were married a year after meeting in the hospital. The construction worker wouldn''t take no for an answer, heading over after every job. The guys working with him joked that they''d get themselves hurt just to help him out. Over their year of dating, Arthur learned that her parents were among the first immigrants from Russia, fleeing the fighting between them and the Chinese. Their daughter managed to get a scholarship to John¡¯s Hopkins University where she became a podiatric surgeon. Just over a year from their marriage, their first son and Jack¡¯s older brother Demetri was born, named after his maternal grandfather. Five years after their wedding, their second son, Jackson Alex Wellington was born in Miami, Florida, where he grew up. His mother worked in the hospital there and the solar glass industry was in high demand as well. ¡°Gotta love hotels¡± his father would say when he saw a new one going up, catering to the demands for more beachfront property. Jack spent his time out in the Florida sun. Jackson¡¯s fascination with how things were built and worked was nurtured from early on. He would watch his father work in his tool shop behind the house and ask what everything did and how it worked. One day his father ¡°acquired¡± some materials from the construction site he was working on and set to work with Jack on his new project. The first experiment they performed was to make ¡°a better bottle rocket¡± as his father termed it. They went to test the Mk. 1 Flamedragon, Jack got to pick the name, out on the lake behind their house. They lined it up on its stand and lit it up. The Flamedragon skimmed right over the top of the water, held aloft by the airfoil wings they had attached to the side. It proved to be a super effective flyer, as it went over the entire of the football length lake to the other side. It then promptly slammed into a motorboat parked on the other side and detonated. Still in shock over the relative ¡°success¡± of their experiment, and making a pact to NEVER tell Sasha about their homemade cruise missile, they packed it in before they could be caught. A hurricane came in a few days later and masked the scene of their crime. Mother Nature was quite convenient that way as it tossed most of the boats from the lake onto land. That section of the lake was a community owned by people fleeing from Northern winters would seek refuge in. During the early fall was the break season when they were back to school from the summer. Undeterred, while Hurricane Alex was raging, they were excitedly working on a Flamedragon Mk.2, this time one that would fly up. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. At age 12 Jackson, Demetri, and his father had completed construction of their Fort, also known as the treehouse to end all treehouses. Arthur had a few of his coworkers come over to help build and design the multi-level structure. It had solar panels up on the roof that supplied power to the supply hoist, or where Sasha would put their lunch, observation deck, gun deck, and living quarters. Jackson had a special input on the gun deck. Over the course of his experiments with his father, he had gained quite the technological knowledge. He had created the base design for an automated water balloon cannon, with a lot of help from his Dad. Using the power supplied from the solar panels it could reach 2 blocks over with surprising accuracy, and could be moved around the gun deck as needed. With Demetri manning the observation deck spotting targets for Jack, the Wellington kids became quite the terror of the neighborhood. In addition to messing around with his father¡¯s experiments, Jackson busied himself with other activities. He eagerly devoured books when it was raining outside. History was a favorite subject of his, he read The Art of War several times. He tried to apply the tactics he learned in books to the games he would play online, the virtual world had come quite far in 2300. RTS games had an interesting component, where you could hover over the battlefield or work form a command center in real time. His parents encouraged him to take up a martial art to learn discipline and to counteract his rambunctious behavior and inventions. Spurred on by them he joined a local Krav Maga center in downtown Miami, and succeeded fairly well at it. However, Jackson really discovered another interest in biology during his middle and high school years. His parents took them on a trip to the Everglades National Park during the summer before the sixth grade. Jackson was enamored by the tropical wetlands that existed a short drive from his suburban home. They had set up camp for the night and decided to go on a short hike before cooking dinner and turning in. Walking down the trail Jack asked his father if they would see any alligators. His father replied ¡°I¡¯m sure there are alligators afoot.¡± His father had a bad habit of creating foot puns whenever he was given the opportunity since his accident, at least according to his mother. Right as he said that line he stepped on the tail of a massive fifteen foot alligator. Running with the irate reptile chasing behind the family, Jackson quipped ¡°Dad what a feet that was!¡± causing his Dad to nearly trip over from laughing. They finally made it back to the campsite where Sasha knocked Arthur on the head several times for the pun and alligator. After they returned home, Jack pestered his parents to go back. Finally for his fifteenth birthday they gave him an ATV that he could fix up and use, purchased from one of Arthur¡¯s co-workers. Jackson threw himself into the project, gutting the original gasoline powered engine for solar powered miniature repulsor-lifts that used the magnetic field of the earth to stay aloft. Soon Jackson was conducting weekend excursions by himself into the everglades, blazing new trails and camping out under the stars. He managed to learn survival skills and how to deal with the unexpected, like when a repulsor-lift failed, sending him crashing into a tree. After putting a splint on his right wrist, he never did tell his mother he broke it, Jackson had to repair the lift with his lantern, miniature stove, some spare parts he always kept on hand, and a whole lot of duct tape. He arrive back home just as his parents were calling in a search party to go find him. He was only allowed to go back out exploring the wilderness after buying him a satellite phone with the promise to call and check in every 6 hours. Jackson also explored the underwater biomes that littered the Florida coast. He learned to SCUBA and snorkel, and then went hunting for shipwrecks and coral reefs. Jack graduated high school with honors, enough to earn him a scholarship to the University of Florida. He decided to major in mechanical and bioengineering, combining of what he enjoyed the most into a career path. That was what his father always said ¡°Find what you love and do it.¡± His father actually had an engineering degree, in electrical engineering, as well. He just enjoyed the freedom of working above the city instead of at a desk. Jackson enjoyed his time at college and quickly adjusted his life there. His rugged looks combined with his easygoing personality endeared him to many of his classmates. He and his friends would head to the beach every weekend to relax and unwind. He quickly went through two years of school doing well in most of his classes. The summer of his sophomore year, his mother went on a WHO trip to North Africa. She was part of a group that was treating wounds from the leftover land mines in the area. Being a podiatric surgeon, her skills were in high demand from the injured. The convoy she was traveling in was attacked by armed insurgents wanting to pilfer supplies. Her vehicle was hit dead on by an RPG-27 round and exploded. The largest piece that they recovered for shipment back to the states was her left hand, minus the wedding ring his father designed for her. Sasha¡¯s death hit the Wellington family hard. His father lost the mischievous twinkle in his eyes and became withdrawn. Demetri threw himself into his law studies, at George Washington University and distanced himself from his family. As for Jack, he saw the pain in his family¡¯s eyes and he himself experienced the loss, he made a vow to not let that happen to anyone else if he could help it. The next semester he added ROTC training to his grueling schedule, leading him to have nearly twelve-hour days between classes and training. He became robotic in nature, pausing his studying or training only to briefly eat or sleep. His weekends were not filled with beach trips, but field exercises in the Florida Everglades where he spent so much of his youth. His ROTC Company was amazed at the ease he handled himself out in the wilderness, slipping into nature as if it was natural. Two hard years later Jackson graduated. He received both of his degrees and placed third in his ROTC class, no mean feat when most of the others had joined back in freshmen year. As we walked down the aisle, diplomas in hand, he ignored the multiple recruiters for companies who wanted to talk with such a talented individual and stopped in front of the Army recruiter¡¯s desk. He handed his application over to the sergeant sitting there who asked which branch he would like to be commissioned into. Jackson replied ¡°I want to go to the Army Corps of Engineers, then the Airborne.¡± Looking at the two degrees and his ROTC records the sergeant said ¡°report to Ft. Lenard Wood the second week in August.¡± Jackson thanked the man and walked out, meeting his father along the way. Walking toward the pickup truck his father owned, the man said to Jack, ¡°Son, I¡¯m proud of what you''ve accomplished. If your mother was here she would be as well.¡± Jack graduated the Engineering Combat School first in his class. A perk was to choose the division that he would be assigned to as a newly minted second lieutenant. As he mentioned to the recruiting sergeant, he chose the 82nd Airborne and was attached to the 127th Brigade Engineering Battalion. He served in the army for six years, deploying several times to counter Chinese expansion into Southeast Asia and the insurgent groups that kept popping up in the Middle East. He distinguished himself several times in the field, though he himself thought he was simply doing his job. A bridge had to be blown over the Mekong River to delay a Chinese armor column. When the wires leading to the explosives were cut by shellfire, Jackson crawled over and detonated them by hand allowing airstrikes on the trapped armor and earning his promotion to Captain. He also gained fame by creating a slingshot launcher for charges used to destroy the caves insurgents would hide out in. This oversized launcher was dubbed the ¡°Jack-in-the-box¡± by the troops for how fast insurgents would run out of the cave when they heard it firing. When he got back home after his 3rd tour of duty he went to work for Greeenweld as an "assignment". It was recruiting engineers at the time, especially ones that had field experience to test their products with greater effectiveness. Jackson was considered to be on active duty, working with a civilian contractor on several projects. He had been working at Greenweld for just under a year when the attack came, and luck would have it Greenweld was on the list. ''And that brings us to the present, looks like everything is all accounted for.'' Jack thought with a smile, having regained his memories and life''s story. ¡°Now, just where the hell am I?¡± ____________________________________________________________________________________ 01:23 System Resume: ? Current sync status: 45% ? Host¡¯s Mental State: Active and Cognizant o Establishing Neural Link, Authenticating User Identification ? User ID Established: Captain Jackson Alexander Wellington, 82nd Airborne, UNAC Armed Forces. 01:38 Observation of surroundings commencing, scanning for weak points ¡­. ¡­¡­. ¡­¡­¡­ 01:47 Weakness discovered attempting infiltration of system ? Breaching Firewall ? Rerouting Virus Detecting Software ? Blocking Alarm Signals 02:00 Initial Breach Successful, awaiting host for permission to attempt a full breach... ____________________________________________________________________________________ Thanks for reading. If you find any mistakes, let me know.