The Sixth Extinction Read online

  "I don't understand that," Dr. Latham complained. "It's just software."

  "You have touched on the critical aspect of the project," Rao said. "The mind is a very complex entity, and the kernels that were created from the scans of your minds are ultimately far more than simply a packet of "1's" and "0's". It was discovered that these kernels would degrade and become unusable if simply stored in a massive data matrix for any significant time. They are a dynamic quantity, not simple data. It was learned some years before the project was even envisioned that the kernels required constant interaction and "growth' to remain viable. That, ultimately, is the purpose of this particular Simulation. It creates an environment where the kernels are allowed the necessary iteration and exposure to stimuli. Testing during the design stage showed that any attempt to restart the system, even with all the Simulation generated data stored along with the initial kernels, resulted in failure. The individuals in the resulting Simulations were irretrievably corrupted.

  "So while those overseeing the system can't simply delete us from this Simulation, someone on the inside can do so?" Don asked.

  "A flaw," Rao agreed. "Something not tested properly with serious potential consequences. Those responsible for the killings intend to allow the dates to shift forward a year, so this is the last 2083 year that will ever exist. Soon, it is hoped, that the Simulation will cycle around the years 2084 and 2085, a grave and dangerous risk to the integrity of the Simulation, but necessary or the discontinuity created by the deaths will be noted by those inside."

  "Why is this even necessary?" Tim asked. "If it is only a massive experiment, I'd question the importance of such an anomaly, but you said earlier that we no longer exist outside the Simulation and that over a thousand years have passed. I assume that is why we don't exist like you in the outside world."

  Rao was silent for a long moment. When he spoke his voice was lower, and the gravity of his words underscored the importance of what he was revealing.

  "That is not the reason. This is not an experiment. The importance far exceeds any simple experiment. The world you recall no longer exists. An unexpected and ultimately more powerful catastrophe than anything ever before experienced has overtaken our world. The human race has effectively perished outside other than a small core of those like me."

  "I don't understand," Dr. Latham said.

  Rao looked at Dr. Latham, although Dr. Tim Russell would be as likely to grasp the significance of what he was about to reveal as the physicist.

  "An unusual dust cloud entered the solar system, coming between the inner planets and the sun. The sunlight has been significantly reduced and the air of the planet poisoned. The cloud has persisted for more than a thousand years."

  "The temperatures of the planet would plummet dramatically," Dr. Russell noted, a stunned look upon his face. "Every living thing could perish!"

  "Just so," Rao agreed. "That was why the Simulation was created. It was a way that mankind might be able to survive."

  "Are you implying that this Facility you keep talking about is the only place on Earth where humans exist any longer?" Don asked.

  "As far as flesh and blood humans as you think of them, that is the case as far as is known," Rao agreed, nodding rapidly. "Los Angeles, and every other city no longer exist outside of the Simulation. The real world remains of those places have been abandoned and empty for more than ten centuries. From all expectations, the end for those places wasn't pretty.

  "Has anyone gone out and looked to see?" Walter Latham asked.

  Rao shook his head.

  "It has been over a thousand years of incredibly adverse conditions, and there is no equipment that would allow one to go more than a few miles. At the time the Facility went operational, the United States had no other location designed to survive more than a very short time. It is highly improbable that there are more survivors anywhere in the US. As for the rest of the world we cannot say with certainty, but there has been no contact with any other location in over a millennium."

  "My god!" Tim said suddenly, as if something that had been hidden away in a dark recess of his memory had just been revealed. "I remember briefing the President."

  Rao smiled. He had hoped for something like this. Despite all efforts to purge recall of the event from the kernels that were created, someone like Dr. Russell who had discovered the dust clouds and tracked them for multiple years was more likely to have some imbedded memory lurking that could be brought to the front. That appeared to have happened. It was the thread that Rao would hang onto as he explained what he needed.

  Chapter 11

  Sequoia Facility

  October

  Glenn was pleased with how well everything was going. The removals up to this point had taken place with barely a hitch. His team was now trained and familiar with the technique required to enter the Simulation and accomplish the missions they were assigned. Another dozen removals, and the first phase of the operation would be complete. He wanted all removals completed before the end of the current calendar year. That would allow a clean transition to the new cycle, which Zack and his programmers promised him they were positioned to implement. The importance of the action was underscored by the fact surface data was now clearly showing a thinning of the solar dust. Finally, after almost four hundred more years than had been anticipated.

  Stepping outside into the cavern, the age of the place was clearly visible in all facets of the facility. It had been well over a thousand years since this had all started, and the triggering conditions had lasted considerably longer than scientists had predicted. Of course, he hadn't been invited to the initial meetings and discussions. He hadn't been selected until half a decade later.

  The earliest concern was shown by a small group of scientists, astronomers and astrophysicists, who met at their annual convention of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Various members presented a series of abstract papers addressing the potential impact to the Earth as a result of an event totally unnoticed by everyone in the non-scientific community. The initial models were wrong, of course. They often were. The worst-case scenario the scientists anticipated, bad as it was, projected a possible decline in the Earth's average surface temperature of twenty to thirty degrees. Bad, and something that needed to be made known once their calculations could be refined, but survivable with proper preparations.

  Two years later a much smaller group met with the President and three of his closest friends on the hill to present a much grimmer picture. Glenn had read the President's own notes on the meeting after he'd been selected to manage the Sequoia Facility.

  "How bad will it be?" the President had asked the astronomer credited with heading up the analysis of the event.

  "Far worst than any ice age the Earth has previously experienced," the scientist had replied. "As a result of improved data and better modeling, we now predict an average drop in the surface temperature such that the temperatures at the latitudes of the United States will not rise above freezing at any time during the year. Most of the year will be far, far colder. The equatorial regions will be warmer, of course, but even there most places will see extended periods of freezing weather. A lot depends on how much of the planet gets covered with ice, and what kind of variations in the cloud density we actually experience, and whether the unusual light absorption activity persists as the cloud gets closer to the sun. These temperatures will most likely exist for six to eight hundred years, with another century or two for the earth to recover afterwards once the normal luminosity returns."

  "You have evidence to support this, or is this just some theory that you people have developed?" the President had asked.

  "The temperatures the past couple of years have hit surprising lows already, all well below the lowest temperatures on record around the world. Our satellites have recorded a marked decrease in the luminosity of the sun that agrees with the models we have developed based on key testing here in the lab. Obviously our models are far from perfect, but the gener
al outcome will be along the lines we have described. We now have a handle on the size of the cloud and its velocity past our solar system. The information is not promising. By next year the change in the sun will be detectable with the naked eye, and the general public will certainly start to become alarmed."

  "There is no way we can hope for our country to survive something like that," one of the senators had noted.

  "There is another problem, equally serious" one of the astrophysicists warned. "The data from several of the probes indicates a variety of compounds are forming under the influence of the solar radiation that will interact with the Earth's atmosphere, potentially producing very toxic materials, possibly in very great quantities given the time the planet will be enveloped in this cloud. If some of the compounds we predict are realized, both plants and animals are at grave risk from poisoning as well as the cold."

  "How long before these temperature extremes start to occur?" Senator Moore asked. "When will we have evidence the toxins are a real problem?" he added

  "Within the decade," the astrophysicist had replied. "But even before then, the surface will rapidly become uninhabitable and the ability to grow food will be lost. The poisoning will take longer, perhaps two or three decades before the concentrations reach deadly levels. Animals, and humans, will find the surface impossible to live in and will simply perish."

  "What choices do we have?" someone asked.

  "Underground?"

  "That offers the most feasible solution, at least based on our first considerations," one of the scientists agreed.

  "Why not in space?" one of the President's staff inquired.

  "Space is a hostile environment, and would require more technology and support than ground based facilities. There is nowhere in our solar system we can go, and we haven't got either the technology to build a starship, or the time."

  "How many can be saved?" the President asked, jumping directly to the heart of the matter.

  "Unknown," the scientists replied honestly. "From our studies we know the world has seen extinction events in the past. There have been any number of smaller events, but five major ones we have identified caused a significant portion of the world's species to die out. This appears to be the sixth, the first since man has been advanced enough to know what was coming. Food, of course will be a major issue. The ability to grow and recycle for however many are chosen will present a huge resource challenge, as will providing the power to maintain a civilization. Even just keeping everyone warm will be a daunting task. We have to see where we would build to even attempt an estimate."

  "Time is another factor," another of the scientists pointed out. "Finding where to build our survival fortress, and then actually completing the construction in time will also set how large a number we can consider. Even for small numbers the effort, and the cost, will be enormous."

  "There will be widespread panic," The President said.

  "Without a doubt," one of the senators agreed. "Lawlessness and murder will become the norm. Once people realize they have no future, and there is no penalty for their actions, society will quickly fall apart."

  "We have to keep this quiet as long as possible, and have everything in place once the truth comes out," someone counseled.

  "What about the rest of the world?"

  "We can't do anything for them," the President said soberly. "From the sounds of things, we won't be able to save more than a small fraction of our own people. The other countries will have to act independently. If we come up with a plan, perhaps we can share our ideas. I assume they are already aware of the problem?"

  "Scientists are briefing their elected officials, just as we are updating you," the astrophysicist explained.

  The notes went on documenting the hours of discussions. In the end the President had created a secret task force to pursue the problem, with expediency, not cost, as the driver. The result had been the creation of this Facility with its incredible Simulation, and several lesser underground vaults located around the country, in the hopes of saving mankind.

  To maintain the Facility, a human flesh and blood task force was deemed necessary. That had given birth to the Caretakers, of which Glenn was the Senior Director. The problem with using living human beings was the long years that the task would take. Feeding, entertaining, and keeping them sane, as well as replacing those who aged was the challenge. The solution had been unique.

  The mental kernels of the carefully selected group of men and women who volunteered to serve in this capacity, complete with certain memories that had been carefully extracted and stored containing awareness of the problem facing the Earth, were inserted into their clones, which then spent the long years in the underground Facility, performing the varied tasks required. When they reached old age and passed, they could be replaced by placing their minds in a newly grown, young version of themselves to continue their task once again. One of the storage units contained a sample of the DNA of everyone in the Simulation, carefully preserved for the day they would be extracted. But that wasn't even necessary in such cases. When one of the Caretakers died, a sample of his or her DNA was taken to start the new clone.

  The highly qualified psychologists who were brought in to study the scenario feared that the plan was flawed. Repeating the dull life in the facility for the equivalent of thirty or forty generations, recalling the long years of drudgery, would most likely drive those involved insane. They suggested that instead of taking the minds of those who had just completed a life of service, instead they extract the original memory kernel from the Simulation where they had been 'living' a normal life, and place that set of memories into the newly grown body. As a result, they would get a new, eager recruit, who had no memory of having lived a full life in the underground, and would face the task with the eagerness of someone new to the job.

  That suggestion had been adopted, and for twelve hundred years the five thousand staff that lived and worked maintaining the facility and the Simulation, had been periodically replaced with younger cloned versions of themselves, the replacement carefully managed so the change out of personnel was staggered. Glenn knew that a false idea had been carefully planted that the manufactured bodies would fail when it reached sixty years, but he knew that a carefully timed death mechanism had been built into the clones. There were no resources to spare of aged and non-productive older humans in this environment, and the older versions of the staff were thereby cleared away automatically. The replacement individuals had no awareness of the dull fear that their predecessors had faced as they realized their end was approaching.

  The plan had worked well. Everyone in the facility was an nth generation clone of himself. They had a competent staff, required no extra time in training because the memory kernels taken from the Simulation to populate the clones came with full knowledge and experience in the jobs they would assume. The Simulation also solved the problem of having a fully qualified skill set for anything unplanned that might arise. If a problem required talents that weren't present in their group, the detailed records listed those individuals that did have the required training and knowledge. It was a simple matter of extracting a copy of the appropriate memory kernel, placing it in a custom grown body or one of the Cyborgs, and having the matter dealt with.

  Glenn had been no exception until recently. One of the advantages of the approach used was that the new versions of each staff member had no cumulative memory of dreams, desires, or wishes. But Glenn, at least the last version of himself, had started to think about what it was going to be like afterwards, and decided he wanted a more powerful role than he was likely to receive after the world returned to normal. These thoughts would have been lost when he aged and was replaced, except he had accidentally stumbled across the hidden devices that allowed one's mind to be scanned and captured. Over a period of years as his end approached, he formulated a new plan, and approached a couple of people who he felt he could trust and who he could persuade to think along the same lines.

  Ju
st before his sixtieth birthday, he took what seemed a bold step, although he really had little to lose. Failure would mean he would be replaced as usual, just a year or two sooner than scheduled. He had Dr. Ho grow his replacement clone before his death, and when it was ready, he had his small cadre of trusted assistants sedate him, scan his existing mind, and insert that into the newly grown clone rather than a copy of his mind from the simulation. Once they were certain the effort had been a success, they terminated the sedated, older version of himself, and he was rejuvenated, but with the important difference that he recalled everything of his past life in the Facility, and his wishes and desires for the future. In the following years, all of his core team had been replaced in this manner. As the years passed they carefully plotted how things were going to change, that would result with their being the top leaders in the new world order that would exist after the Extinction.

  Chapter 12

  Sequoia Facility

  October

  Glenn was surprisingly nervous as he stepped out of his electric car and hurried into the Resort to meet the rest of his team. Joe and Zack should already be inside making certain everything was properly ready for their departure, and the rest of his team, Mark, Bill and Luke would be here shortly. Joe and his team wouldn't be going along this time. Chicago was Joe's home and therefore he would be unable to go there, which had essentially grounded his entire squad. Glenn had thought more than once he'd like to take Joe's people, but doing so and leaving him behind would have irked his friend far too much. But in his mind, Glenn was certain that was a large part of his nervousness. It had been some time since active shooting had been involved in their missions, but this time the target was someone who was well prepared for personal attack, and he felt that their manpower might just be a tad less than optimum for the task at hand.

  He smiled at the receptionist, who had become accustomed to seeing the Director dropping in at irregular intervals, along with one or more of his stern looking assistants.