Flashback time for Teresa: Recruiting two more prospective mothers About thirty years ago, six months after the discovery: Teresa, holding Keltain, carefully sat down in her designated chair. She made sure the baby was looking towards the wall, away from anyone else. By now, the adults had a pretty good idea of Keltain's abilities. His flame bursts only occurred at a distance of about two metres away from him, and in his direct line of sight. So Teresa was safe when she was holding him. Probably. She still occasionally had narrow escapes. And the others were safe if they were three or metres away from him. In general. After all, having a small fireball exploding anywhere in the room could never be totally safe. This explained why Teresa and baby were at one end of the room, while everybody else were at the other end. And all of the adults were very very careful when speaking or moving, so as not to produce any sudden loud noises. Keltain didn't like being surprised by loud noises. "I'm exhausted. Keltain requires constant attention and you lot aren't much use when it comes to babysitting." said Teresa. The other adults shuffled around in their chairs. Some of them actually look a little guilty. But not enough to make any difference, the jerks. "Well, the purpose of this meeting is to find some solution to that little problem. And to work out how to get our third implantation volunteer." said Lenny. He looked to Dr Stanford. He stood up, moved over to a whiteboard, and assumed his scholarly lecture persona. "I'm proposing that we solve the two problems with the one solution. As is obvious to anyone who can look beyond their own noses, our society is currently going through what can only be described as a stage of organised chaos. There are so many things can kill us if we don't pay our full attention to them. Which means a lot of other things can get lost in the background. For example, what do we do about people who are misfits, who can't work out how to fit in with their surrounding society?" Get on with it! We don't want a lecture! Arnold shifted in his chair and looked irritated. Teresa looked even more irritated than usual. Dr Stanford got the message. "Well, moving right along, I have a few likely subjects. A couple of teenage girls, pregnant of course, who really don't have much in the way of skills and who just want to be mothers. Or who think that just want to be mothers, naturally they don't realise how much work is involved. You don't say. "So we recruit them. Fine, but what about their parents and or boyfriends?" said Lenny. "Oh, naturally these girls are totally socially isolated. One's orphaned, the other is completely estranged from her parents. And both boyfriends shot through as soon as they realised they might have to start acting like responsible adults for once." Those criterion fit me like a glove - is he making a dig at me? Probably not, he really couldn't care less. "OK, that sounds as good an idea as any. Are you sure you can get them onboard? What we are offering is pretty strange, after all." said Lenny. "I think so. These girls are, frankly, a bit stupid and a bit lazy. Offer them an easy lifestyle, they just have to do some babysitting, get them used to Keltain's esp ability, then suggest that their babies could also become awesome esp users - I don't think we'll have any problems. Of course, we will keep it a big secret as to where this location actually is. Let them think it is somewhere underground close to the North Tower." There where some nods of agreement from his audience. "But, isn't this very close to exploiting these girls?" said Laura. Exactly what I was thinking! And Lenny looked annoyed there, but he hid it from Laura. I wonder about those two. "What we have to remember is that whatever we do, it is going to be dangerous. But we are not asking anyone else to take risks which we haven't already taken ourselves. We are definitely walking the walk. And those girls will be informed before we attempt the implantation again, they'll be babysitting Keltain and so will have firsthand knowledge of the existence of esp powers, and of their dangers." said Lenny. Laura looked hesitant, but eventually nodded her head in agreement. But these two girls are a little dumb. Dr Stanford himself said so. Which still sort of makes it exploitive. But, do I have any better ideas? Nope. And Laura is allowing herself to be swayed by Lenny's opinion. When the time to vote came, they all voted yes. Flashback time for Arnold: Risky business Two years after the discovery, there was another meeting. Arnold surveyed all who were present. Thank God the two mothers are busy looking after the three toddlers. This is definitely not a discussion for their ears. Lenny took the floor. "It is very pleasing to finally get to this point, we now have three toddlers with definite, easy to prove, esp powers. One with fire powers, one who is a levitator, and one who can cause small spark discharges between her fingers. Once we make this public and allow scientists to examine them, the evidence will be irrefutable." Good, good. Say the positives first. "I know it wasn't easy getting to this point, but I need to point out that, going forward, things will no doubt be getting even more difficult." Then touch on the negatives. "So, that is what we are going to be discussing now. How to manage the publicity. And, of course, how to maintain our privacy and secrecy and maintain our control of the esp Artifact." Then get straight to the heart of the matter. Good one, Lenny. Dr Stanford cleared his throat. "Ah, If I can ask a question?" "Sure" "Why are you so intent on maintaining the artifact a secret? I mean, this is a tremendous discovery, it should be thrown wide open to the wider community! With the full might of humanity's scientific inquiry, who knows what we can find? There is just no way that we can investigate this wonderful gift to the extent it deserves!" A short silence from the others, then Lenny spoke up. "Well now, that might be correct. But it could also be correct that some other power group will just grab the Artifact and lock it down and use it exclusively for their own purposes. We can't tell, and if we make the location known, there is no way we can actually resist that." The others agreed, and Dr Stanford, somewhat reluctantly, nodded his head in agreement. I wonder if that is his true motive? I must discuss this with the others when he is not around. At the end of the meeting they had a tentative plan. Lenny read out the conclusion: "We'll keep all of our identities secret. We'll let the two mothers become public, since they don't know much anyway, and they can show the world their own toddlers, with impossible to explain esp powers. Of course, those mothers will henceforth have to live somewhere in Verdant, they can't come back here." The committee thought this over for a while. "Are you sure that it doesn't matter that the mothers know us by sight? And our first names." said Terrence. "A calculated gamble. We can't erase that information from their heads - well, unless we one day discover an esp power that allows us to do that - but it probably doesn't matter if our first names are know, after all they will all know that someone has to be running the esp implantations." said Arnold. "It just means that we are basically stuck here for quite a while. And if we ever go to Verdant, we need to be discreet about it." said Lenny. "It's just a bit risky..." said Teresa. "The whole thing is risky, as we all well know." said Prakash. "Uh, right." said Lenny. "You realise, once those two mothers are back in Verdant, I don't have any baby sitters?" said Teresa. A sigh of exasperation from Lenny. "Of course. We need to immediately try to recruit a few more mothers to live here, and try to choose women who nobody will notice are missing." "I'll do my best." said Dr Stanford.

Flashback time for Teresa: Two more mothers Two years and one month after the discovery. I'm glad the doctor found two more totally isolated would be mothers. They're actually quite good at babysitting Keltain. It was evening in Futures City, and she was trudging through the connection tunnel from the main building to her own habitat, which had grown to encompass two extra bedrooms for two mothers. She was dragging a trolley, since she needed to gather the dirty nappies and other clothes and take them back to the washing machines. Someone came down the tunnel, walking in the opposite direction. Oh, it's Dr Stanford. Probably checking up on one or other of the girls and working out when will be the best time to try the implantation. He looked slightly taken back on seeing her. He mumbled a greeting, and continued past. What's he up to? Why does he remind me of my younger brother when I caught him pinching cookies from the kitchen that time? Aww - just my imagination. She grabbed her own dirty clothes from her room, put them in a bag and dumped in into the trolley. Then she moved to Keltain's room. "Hi there!" she said to the older teenager, currently holding Keltain and trying to stop him from grizzling too much. I see there's a new burn mark on the wall. Just as well we put in extra fire proof panels. She spent half an hour cuddling Keltain. With all suitable precautions. Both she and the girl made every effort to never be in Keltain's line of sight, and certainly never be two metres from him. Always either right up close, or all the way to the other side of the room. "Say, where's the other girl?" said Teresa. "Oh, ah, she said she would have a sleep." That's strange, she looks slightly guilty. She's not like that usually. A very faint bell was ringing way back in her head. She shook her head, in an attempt to remove the ringing sound. Putting on some gloves, she went to the first girl's bedroom, walked in, grabbed the bag containing the dirty clothes, and shoved them into the trolley. She went to the other girl’s bedroom, and knocked. "Hi there! I've come to collect the laundry." "Oh, wait..." The door opened and the girl's hand appeared, holding the bag. "Thanks!" said Teresa. She obviously doesn't want to say hello today, so let her be. She pushed the trolley back to the main building, but stopped half way. Nyah, surely not. I mean, it can't be. But... She looked up and down the tunnel. No one present. This is totally silly. Nonetheless, she opened the last bag she had thrown into the trolley. Being used to cleaning dirty nappies, she was not all that upset about pawing through some girls washing. Until she came to a towel. She checked up and down the tunnel again, then cautiously sniffed the towel. Yuck. It's unmistakable. Dr Stanford, you sleazy little slut. I'm going to bring this up at a meeting, as soon as I get a chance. She had to wait a couple of weeks, since there was a sudden influx of expectant mothers. Half a dozen. There was a lot to organise, especially to do with security and keeping the location secret. After watching the last mother receive her implantation, the committee and Dr Stanford all visibly relaxed. "My God, that's a relief, no deaths this time." said Teresa. "Yeah, we certainly don't want any more, particularly at this early stage." said Prakash. "OK, if we can now get her back to Verdant?" said Lenny. This involved taking the expectant mother, who was lightly sedated, putting her into the elevator capsule, hauling her back up to the surface, then loading her into a surface vehicle and driving her back to Verdant. Of course, this left tracks in the ground, so they were careful to follow existing tracks, of which there were many. They were also careful to make the trip at night. And Terence, with help from Lenny and Arnold, had managed to hack into the software of the ground surveillance satellites, and surreptitiously remove any video footage of such vehicles. The next day, they all gathered in their main meeting room. "Bloody hell, this is cumbersome, transporting the women to and from us. One day we're going to make a mistake and everyone will know exactly where we are." said Prakash. "It can't be helped. Hopefully we can put in some underground Maglev lines or something, somewhere in the future." said Lenny. "It's not too bad, we're bribing a few people at the hospital and with a few other arrangements, it's pretty secure on their end." said Arnold. "Well, anyway, the next two are much easier," said Dr Stanford, "By chance, their implantation days are the same, and we don't have to worry about any security." A week later, Dr Stanford sedated the two women, and he and a few helpers from the committee pushed the hospital beds to the Artifact. By now, they had built a second floor and the Artifact was at an easy one metre height above the floor. The doctor and Laura gently transferred one woman to the Artifact, then everyone else gathered at furthest point from it in the room. "OK, big breath everyone. As agreed, we are specifying to the Artifact a new code for this one. So, Terrence?" said Lenny. Terrence clicked a button on his laptop. The Artifact glowed a brighter orange for a moment, then settled back to its usual intensity. The doctor hurried over, and attached a few medical instruments. "Hmm" he said, frowning, "Ah, actually her breathing and heart beat are a little depressed, but I suppose that is OK. Let's do the next one." Teresa clenched her fists. I hope to God there isn't any more problems, but if the doctor says it's OK, then I suppose I shouldn't worry. The second woman was placed and Terrence clicked the button again. The doctor hurried back, and checked her out. He checked her again, looking at the diagnostic screens of the medical instruments. Then, with a carefully neutral face, he got out his manual stethoscope, and checked her heart. He looked up, and in a perfectly flat voice, said: "Sorry, she appears to have died." Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Another Lucy. Shit. "Damn." said Arnold. He might have said more, except that several of the instruments attached to the first woman began beeping. Fuck. Two hours later, they were all at the meeting place. Which, by the way, also doubled as their dining room. Dr Stanford ran his hand through his hair. "Sorry, everyone, I followed all of the guidelines we have compiled so far, which is mostly that it has to be done at 100 days. And the girls insisted that they knew the precise dates that they conceived their babies." He made a sign of annoyance. "They're probably too dumb to know what causes babies, and didn't really have any firm idea anyway." Oh, stop being so dismissive you jerk. They're now dead! Teresa suddenly remembered sniffing a towel. He really is a sleaze. I must have a few words with the others. "What we can do is to take these mothers in to the Verdant hospital for autopsy. By examining the foetuses, and more particularly the telomere count of their chromosomes, we can get an accurate estimation on how old the foetuses actually were. At least their deaths will provide more information to hopefully avoid future deaths." Yeah, yeah. I suppose so. We need all the data we can get. "And, really, I still think you should reconsider your choice to keep all of this a total secret. What is really needed here is a lot more input from the scientific community, we are bound to make better progress." "Dr Stanford, thanks for your input. We are still thinking about that matter, but, in the meanwhile, if you can set about arranging those autopsies?" "Sure." Straight after the meeting, Teresa went back to her quarters. After all, she needed to look after Keltain, who would be soon waking up from his sleep. And they had discovered it was extremely unwise to let him cry by himself. She walked to the nursery room and entered. Keltain was beginning to stir, but was still asleep. The rest of the habitat was silent and still. She slowly sank her head to the railings of the cot, watching Keltain. Two more deaths. Two more trees that I am going to plant. Why did it have to get to this? I wish I had died at my implantation. Seeing that Keltain was not waking up quite yet, she silently got up and wandered into one of the girl's rooms. She had left her room in a messy state, a few clothes scattered over the floor, her computer sat on the desk surrounded by screwed up tissues and pieces of paper and a few stuffed toys. Teresa sat down at the desk. Wherever you are, I hope you can forgive us. It's so silent. All of this stuff, waiting for someone who is never going to be coming back. On the computer screen was an open page to what appeared to be a romance novel. Teresa read a few paragraphs. Not very sophisticated at all. In fact, it must be aimed at twelve-year-old girls. Poor girl. Was probably taken advantage of by her boyfriend, and then promptly dumped. And then taken advantage of by Dr Creepy Sleaze. What a mess. She noticed that, amongst stuffed toys and tissues, was a small green notepad. Hello, she actually kept a diary? She read a few pages. Her life wasn't very complicated, was it? It's so bland and boring. And then she found something that riveted her attention to the page. "John said we must go to bed, or else he would leave. I said yes. But, he leaved. In the morning. We only made love once. True love should be forever. That what the books say." This is so pathetic. The poor girl's head was stuffed full of nonsense from all of those third rate romance novels. And her grammar wasn't so crash hot, either. Then she realised that the page was dated. Wait a moment, that means she knew exactly how long she had been pregnant for! What does this mean? She grabbed the diary, stuffed it into her purse, and then had to go back to look after Keltain. Flashback time for Arnold: His first special job A few days after Teresa finds one of the girl’s diary: "Why are we meeting here, instead of our usual meeting place?" said Arnold. He pointed to the Artifact, glowing in its corner. "It's a little uncomfortable having that sitting there, with whatever unknown thoughts it may be thinking." "Eh, you think it is intelligent?" said Prakash. "Ah, not really. But it must have some extremely complicated programs running inside it, which must make it sort of somewhat intelligent, I guess." Lenny cleared his throat. "Anyway. We're here because Dr Stanford is in the dining room, having breakfast. And I told him we had to discuss some boring financial details." "But I thought we resolved the latest difficulties last night." said Arnold. "Yes, we have. For the time being. But there is another matter I wish to discuss." said Teresa. She was holding a small green notepad. Teresa, looking grim, explained what she had discovered in this. The others looked grim also. Lenny tapped his finger on his chair rest. "Tell us, what is the date of that page?" Teresa told them. "Well, now, that matches up perfectly with the forensic date we have just gotten back from the autopsies. Sooooo, what does that mean?" "Why, I'm glad you asked!" said Teresa, "In fact, I have spent the last couple of days in intense thought about that very topic!" I think I can guess where this is going... "As we know, the good doctor is very keen on publishing a scientific paper or ten on this esp stuff, and I'm sure we won't be shy about taking a large part of the recognition for its discovery and development." said Teresa. Arnold sniffed disdainfully. "Yeah, I'm sure he would love to get a Nobel Prize for it." "Him getting a Nobel Prize? Bullshit. What did he do to earn that honour?" said Prakash. "Yes, he didn't risk his life for it. If anyone deserves a Nobel Prize it is Lucy." said Laura. "Sadly, they don't give Nobel prizes posthumously." said Terrence. "Whatever." said Teresa, "But, nonetheless, he is keen on getting recognition. He is also keen on discovering more things about it. Initially I thought he was dedicated to saving babies and toddlers lives, but, I've come to the conclusion, he's really only interested in the scientific research potentials." "But surely he is also dedicated to saving lives?" said Laura. She's so idealistic. "Sorry, but I have to agree with Teresa here, I get the strong impression that what he really only cares about is his own personal advancement, and being a medical researcher is just his route to that goal. After all, it's no secret that I'm a bit like that myself, and I recognise the traits in him." said Arnold. "Ah, yes..." said Laura. "Oh, but I'm more sensible about it than he appears to be. I don't go after innocent people." said Arnold. Well, I try not to go after innocent people. And if I do go after them, I try to disadvantage them as little as possible. Generally. “Sorry? Go after innocent people?” said Laura. "Yes, that’s right, I’m sure that what happened is that, in his pursuit for scientific knowledge, he decided to change the implantation dates of those two girls to a few days before and after the ideal 100 day date. Just to see what happens." said Teresa. I can see that makes sense. A bit tough on those two girls, but. Laura was shocked. "Surely he wouldn't deliberately kill them for such a reason!" "I think he did. Look at this time line-" Teresa held up a sheet of paper. "The middle cross is the optimal time for the implantation, at the 100 day mark. To the right, we have a mark at ten days, ten days after the ideal time. That represents Lucy's death." Hmm, ten days too late is presumably invariably fatal. "And look where the two girl's dates were set at. The first girl's mark was at five days after the ideal time. Note, its half way between the other two marks. The best position to gain the maximum amount of information. And, in fact, we now know that five days too late is fatal, but only just. After all, that poor girl didn't die immediately." Everybody looked at the time line with gloomy faces. "And the other girl's mark is seven days before the ideal time. If we make the assumption that the effects of being late or being early is symmetrical, then having it seven days before is also the optimal position to gain more information." "But, couldn't this still be a mistake? Maybe the girl got her own date wrong when telling the doctor? I'm still having a hard time believing that he is so cold hearted to do such a thing." said Laura. Lenny is not having any such problems. Nor is Prakash. "Well, I don't know, either." said Terrence. Teresa pressed her lips together in anger, then said. "I would like to ask the men here, did any of you have sex with those two girls?" Shocked silence. "Like hell no. I'm still remembering Lucy... No." said Prakash. "Ah, no, certainly not. As you should know, anyway." said Terrence. Lenny shook his head. "No, of course not." Ah! He looked a touch guilty there. And he made sure that Laura didn't see it. I'm sure those little trips he makes to Verdant are not just for business. But, nyah, I highly doubt he would cheat on Laura with those two girls. I'll give him some decency. "I, err, go to Verdant and visit certain discreet establishments. And I would like to say that all my women are mature aged and fully know what they are doing." said Arnold. "Riiiiight. But I know that some man did have sex with at least one of those girls, and probably both of them." She explained why she thought that. "Oh," said Laura, "That's disgusting. Really disgusting. But, how could he?" "I told you, he only looks after himself. And, unlike certain other members here, he is quite happy to betray our goal of introducing esp to our society in a safe a manner as possible." Teresa gave Arnold a mid-strength glare, before looking away. I get the message. Don't betray our esp programme. Hmm, I don't think I would, anyway. Since these esp powers could make all the difference to our Mars civilisation. Silence for a while as they all digested this information. "What, exactly, are we supposed to do about this?" said Laura. Well, here I go. "Easy, I kill him." said Arnold. Sharp intake of breath from a few people, including Laura. "You can't be serious!" "I am being serious. Remember, the Mars legal system does have the death penalty, although it isn't used all that often." "But we can't just go and take on that responsibility ourselves!" "Well, if not us, then who? Remember, we are setting ourselves up as the guardians of the esp Artifact. If we call on the legal system to handle this case, then we are effectively giving that up. Do you want that?" "Not... Really... I suppose... But, if you kill him, how does that make us any different from him, anyway?" "Because we have principles, we have goals, that extend further than just ourselves. I'm sure that half of you have already worked out that I have killed people before. But not people that don't deserve it!" More or less. "Naturally I have my own personal goals, but my overarching goal of my life is the advancement of our Mars civilisation. We are the first line of defence should anything happen to Earth. The first foray for humanity beyond our birth planet. If humans are to endure and to spread out from our little solar system, we on Mars must make a success of our new planetary existence. And these esp powers are a fantastic boon to our species! Just think what we might be able to do if we can, for example, construct tunnels with a fraction of the current cost. Or push spaceships with reactionless drives. Or, or, lots of things. Most of which we just don't know about at the moment. But, even with esp powers, our primary resource are people themselves. Without the current couple hundred thousand humans on the planet, we as a committee can't do a single solitary thing. Which means we must look after them. And, as is abundantly clear to anyone who studies the slightest amount of psychology or history, if we provide the means for people to be happy in their lives, to choose their own pastimes and their own lives and even their own jobs, then, as long as they are also provided with the means to educate themselves and to work, then they will be productive. Only then will they be able combine their forces to produce the best society they can manage. Which means that every last person's life is important. You can't just go around knocking off people just because they annoy you. Such an attitude on the part of a society's leaders will eventually come back and bite you, hard. So if someone really is being a pain, it is best to try one's hardest to change the situation, but without going to the extreme of killing them. And saying someone is weak, or is below average intelligence, or is unlikely to be able to contribute, that is not really a reason to remove them. After all, the four girls we've had so far were not very intelligent, and didn't have much capability for work. But, remember, they did contribute. They babysat our first live esp baby, and were pretty good at it. They were prepared to take the risk and give birth to more esp babies. So they were worthwhile people." Arnold took a deep breath, and worked out where he wanted to take this speech. "And then, there is our Dr Stanford. Highly educated and extremely productive with humanity's number one job of bringing new people into the world. But he has no discernible goals or motive that extend beyond his own skin. He sees his doctoring as a means of getting attention and praise for doing a good job. He sees his study of esp as a means for more of that, and maybe as a means of getting something like a Nobel prize. He is prepared to kill two would be mothers, and their foetuses, just for some more scientific data. Data which we would have gained, eventually, anyway. Because in the future there are times when we are bound to miscalculate the implantation time. So we would still have gotten that data, it would have just taken a little longer. And then, on top of that, he exploits his authority to get some meaningless sex from some immature teenage girls, whom he suspects will not live so they will not be able to betray him. We can't trust a person like that with what we are trying to accomplish." Whew, I think I'll get off my soapbox now. Well, they all look very thoughtful. I hope I didn't overdo it or something. A few minutes of reflective silence. Then Laura spoke up first. "I guess I can't object too much. I just can't get past the fact that he deliberately set out use his authority to seduce them, and then to kill them. That's too much." "Yeah, I guess so too." said Teresa. "I don't want to have my back exposed to that sleazy bastard as we live in these extremely cramped quarters." "He's a creep." said Terrence. "Why should he get the glory of discovering the esp artifact while my Lucy just got death?" said Prakash. "It's his karma." said Lenny. "Say, exactly, how do you intend killing him?" "Oh, I actually own a handgun." Arnold opened his coat, to show a gun in a shoulder holster. Both Laura and Teresa shuddered and withdrew backwards slightly, hitting the backs of their chairs. "Shall I go and do it now?" said Arnold. A very acute silence, while everyone tried not to catch anyone's eyes. "I guess so." said Lenny. Flashback time for Teresa: Amazed at what she is capable of Oh, my, we are all going to be accomplices to murder. I'm amazed that he managed to get Laura on board. Arnold got up, walked through the door, and closed it behind him. There was a continuation of that silence. A very intense silence. Everyone held their breaths and did not move. There was a bang. Everyone in the room twitched, then they all struggled to maintain their composures. Arnold came back, holding the gun. "OK, it's done. He didn't know a thing. And now I need to clean this." "Ah, right, ah, thanks." said Lenny. "Say, shall I plant a tree for him too? When we get an atmosphere here, that is." said Teresa. "Of course." said Arnold. "Err, sure, why not?" said Lenny.