Somatic Sense (continued) Part III – It’s All Good I enjoy life when things are happening. I don't care if it's good things or bad things. That means you're alive.

Howard and Emret had searched the control room and had just now finished the office. There was nothing. If Professor Madison and Joseph Hinckley, his assistant, had been working on Project Weatherman here, then they'd cleared up and cleared out. Nothing had been left behind. Howard questioned the wisdom of following the professor's nephew, the kid had suffered some kind of head trauma or something. He didn't think that either of the boys knew anything.

“I think this whole thing is a diversion,” Howard confided to Emret.

“Yeah, it certainly looks that way,” he gave a final look around the office.

“There's nothing here, and I very much doubt either of those two know anything.”

“I think they’ve been used. Just like you said, to throw us off the trail.”

“Well there's no point wasting more time here. I think we should go, report back, and move on.”

“What about them?”

“We report back. That’s all.”

“Just leave them here then?”

“Yeah, why not?”

It wasn't really a question, more an end to the conversation, and Emret was not about to argue. They walked out of the office, along the corridor, back towards the lounge and entrance hall. Howard did not even bother to check if the boys were there. He picked up his still wet cape from the coat stand in the hall, and pulled it on. Emret did likewise.

“Did you hear that?” Jack looked over at Joel.

“What?” The music was still playing.

“I thought I heard the front door.”

“Music... pause!” Jack commanded.

Without waiting he got up and headed for the hall, Joel was right behind him.

“The coats are gone!” Jack moved quickly across the hall to the front door. Slowly he opened it, just a little. They could hear the rain beating down on the roof of the veranda. Joel was peering through the gap over his shoulder.

They both saw the two shadowy figures disappearing into the gloom. They watched them fade into the darkness.

Joel moved back inside, Jack closed the door, shutting out the elements and the sound of the wind and rain.

“They've gone!” Jack proclaimed with a sense of satisfaction.

“Yeah, and it's kicking up a storm. They must have been in a hurry to get back to civilisation.” Joel smiled to himself.

“Wonder if they found whatever they were looking for?”

“No way.”

“How can you be so sure they never found anything?”

“Coz, they were looking in the wrong place.”

“What does that mean?” Jack asked, his curiosity aroused.

“It means... I found something, and it wasn't in the control room or the office. It was right here in the lounge.”

They’d made their way back to the lounge. Jack plonked himself down on the sofa. He felt relieved that they’d gone. Joel took the armchair.

“I don't think they were after the file on the Neda Project,” Jack told him.

“No, of course not. Watch. Screen... Favourites... Play video!”

A projection screen lowered from the ceiling, the lighting dimmed almost to nothing. The film started.

Professor Madison, Uncle Madison, was sitting behind the desk in his office, facing the camera.

“We have successfully researched back to the beginning of rainfall generation, and followed the process, step by step up to the present day. Joseph is responsible for the discovery of the hitherto unknown formula used by Charles Hatfield, a pioneer in the field.

We have developed the theory of water droplet suspension in the air and have successfully manipulated cloud formation to the point where this can be maintained. Hence, allowing cloud formation that would reach a maximum point of water droplet retention, without allowing that water to fall as rain.

In the process of a number of practical experiments we have proved that this can work. Furthermore, we have successfully piloted cloud manipulation almost to the point where we are able to dictate where and when the water droplets are released. We still have some way to go to be able to refine this part of the process. However, I am satisfied that we will shortly be able to achieve almost complete control. I would put the figure at ninety-five percent accurate rain fall.

It is my conclusion that we should very shortly be able to stop the permanent rainfall and one hundred percent cloud cover. At the same time we will be able to direct rainfall to designated areas for capture and energy production.

As you will understand, this is a revolutionary process that will change the world we live in. It is a secret to be guarded and made available for the benefit of human kind. There are other persons who seek to benefit from our discovery and use it for profit and or worse, for power and control.

We have been forced to close our operation and relocate. Only one person has the coordinates of our new location. This is of course, to protect the discovery. In order to find us you need to find Joel Sands. He will give you our new location, and he alone.

The screen went blank. A few seconds later the lights came on and the screen retracted back into the ceiling.

□□□□□

It seemed like they'd been stuck in this house, in the middle of nowhere, forever. Charlie had settled himself in, the two of them spent their time playing 3D VR games in Charlie's bedroom. Joel got bored with the games, the competition was uneven, so he had to make an effort to lose, if not, Charlie would get upset.

Their mother seemed like she was doing nothing, most often reading a book sitting in her favourite comfy chair in the lounge. His uncle and Joseph were always in the control room or office. Time passed, but nothing happened. They had escaped the city to a life in limbo.

Things changed the night they sat down, on one of those rare occasions, for dinner together, all five of them sitting around the table. It was just as they had finished that Joel's uncle announced they were mothballing operations here, closing down the house, and moving.

“In that case,” their mother told him, “you better arrange transport to take us back to the city.”

He hadn't replied immediately, no doubt thinking about it, but he must have come to the conclusion to send them. He arranged for an apartment rental in Neón de Luces, that was the closest city and it was the place they'd arrived at before coming here.

Joel could tell his mother was not happy, but Uncle Madison left them with no other choice. They would have to make the most of it. Perhaps Neón would not be as polluted as the East coast, who knows.

□□□□□

Mark, Evan, Andre, and Eve were glued to the huge screen watching and listening to the announcement they had been expecting, it was a momentous occasion, one of those historic moments that are set to change the course of history. They were not alone, every team in the X-Corp building had stopped work for the broadcast.

The President was flanked by a general from the army, the Secretary of State, and the speaker of the house. Behind were the project leaders and head of NASA, representatives from most of the nation’s of the world were there as holograms. This announcement was going out live around the globe.

“... and so we have reached the point and a unanimous decision that the next step in our evolution, the next step for human kind is to voyage to the stars. Too much time has been spent on the idea of sending man into space. The idea that one day we would colonise other planets was a seductive one.

It is still, but Operation ReGen is a revolutionary concept, and it is our destiny. The destiny of everyone, every man, woman, and child. We will continue to live our lives here on Earth, but our heritage will be the new human colonies we establish on other distant planets.

The idea is a simple one. All great inventions are often very simple. We are not sending humans into space. It is evident, with all the space exploration to date, that mankind cannot migrate into space and onto other planets like you would voyage across the planet. Looking at the evolutionary process it is obvious that once humanity emerged from the oceans to live on the land, to return to those oceans is difficult and technologically intensive.

It is possible, we can occupy the oceans just as we can live on Mars, but that is neither the question, nor the solution. Operation ReGen is building three Arcs, three motherships. They will be manned by robots and they will take the seed of humanity to the stars. The journey will be a minimum four hundred years, but may be as long as a thousand years.

The crews of these ships will determine the habitable environment as the first potential earth like planets are reached. Once found, a colony will be established and the seed of humankind will be born on these new planets, raised, and educated.

We are sending our seed to be born and to grow on new worlds, this is our future...”

“We knew it would happen,” Andre was smiling at his co-workers.

“Yes, we knew, but it changes things,” Eve replied.

Of the four of them she was the longest serving X-Corp employee, recruited straight after graduation she had worked on two of the companies major projects.

“How really does it change things?” Mark questioned.

“I would suppose the Weatherman Project and Vortex become less important,” Evan chipped in.

He was the newest member on the team and had joined at the early stages of the Vortex work. Evan was also the youngest, but a brilliant engineer.

“We still have a lot of work to do guys. I don't think anything has changed there,” Eve told them.

“Yeah,” Mark said. “I guess we need to get back to it, and find out what's happening in the search.”

“We really do need to find Professor Madison,” Andre stated what they all knew.

Finding the professor and getting him onside was crucial, but how that would be possible was difficult to see.

“Don't worry about all that. Howard and Emret are on the case, and from the latest I heard, they found the nephew.” Mark was the guy who always seemed to know everything that was going on in X-Corp, maybe he was very alert or just perhaps made a point of finding out. Whatever the case, you could usually rely on him to know what was going on.

“So really it's all good,” Andre wasn't actually that convinced.

“It's all good,” Eve repeated. Whether or not she believed that, it was her job as team leader to motivate them, failure – as the X-Corp moto stated – was not an option.