“Hello, Europa,” he said as he watched the monitor, hoping to get a verbal response.
“Good afternoon Dr. Morales,” said the sexy Marylyn Monroe voice.
“How are you today, Europa?”
Silence.
“I asked how you are?” he repeated as he watched the screen.
“I am well,” Europa typed.
Morales only smiled as he approached the first of the six workstations.
“No, you’re not well. But we’ll get you there.” Morales patted the console and then raised the large metal panel. What he saw amazed him. The famous, or was it infamous, Blue Ice system with Pete Golding’s own fingerprints on it. The sight was beyond his imaginings. The three-foot-in-diameter tubes were filled with large, slow-moving blue bubbles made of clear silicone — the memory carrying system that Europa could tap into in a millisecond.
“Where have you been all my life?” he asked as he leaned forward to look upon the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
The door hissed open and Charlie Ellenshaw stood in its opening. His hair was still crazed and his glasses were perched on his forehead. His eyes were red.
“Alice asked me to come and see you,” he said with a voice that was deadpan.
Morales looked from the blue-tinted Europa programming room to Charlie.
“Professor, we have a very sick lady here, and according to Colonel Collins and Director Compton, we’ll need her services desperately”—he looked at his wristwatch—“in less than three hours. I need your help.”
Charlie looked from the newcomer to the inner workings of Europa.
“Pete never worked with Europa while her protective screen was up.”
“Why is that, Professor?” Morales asked, not out of politeness at the tall, strange man, but because he really wanted to know.
Charlie took a tentative step into the room and the doors hissed closed behind him, startling the older man. He collected himself and then faced Xavier.
“He said it was rude to see her like that, so he did the polite thing and closed the door, like she was—”
“A lovely lady in a dressing room?”
“Yeah,” Charlie said as he looked more closely at the youngest genius outside of Niles Compton he had ever met.
Morales, without looking away from Ellenshaw, hit the button and the protective screen came down.
“Europa, are you there?” he asked as he kept watching Charlie.
“Yes,” she typed out.
Without facing the screen he asked Ellenshaw, “She texted her answer?”
“Yes.”
“See, she’s not acting right and I think I can guess as to why. Can you help me, Professor?”
“How?”
“Tell me and Europa about Pete Golding.”
“What?” he asked in utter confusion, but sat down in the station next to Morales.
“Europa, can you tell me the disposition of Dr. Peter Golding, please?”
There was silence for the longest time, long enough that Morales turned his wheelchair and removed the rolling chair in front of the empty station and then faced Europa’s screen.
“Dr. Golding is currently not on station.”
This time both men noticed she spoke instead of texting.
“Do you know why?” he asked.
Silence.
“Europa, have you scanned all personnel records for Department 5656 and any corresponding field report deaths from same?”
Silence.
“Europa?”
“Dr. Peter Golding, deceased ninety-seven days, sixteen hours, fifty-six minutes, plus or minus ten minutes.”
Morales turned to face Charlie.
“Tell me about Pete.” He smiled and then looked at Europa. “Tell us both about Pete and why he died.”
Charlie Ellenshaw was flabbergasted to say the least. He didn’t know if he wanted to hit the kid and leave or just stare stupefied. Then he saw the text messages on the screen blink out and then the lights in the clean room dimmed as Europa powered down.
“You see, Charlie, she needs to know also. She knows what death is, but no one ever explained why people have to die. That is messing with her advanced AI systems that only Pete had intimate knowledge of. We both need to know about Dr. Golding, especially her.”
Ellenshaw sat silent as he studied the young master of artificial intelligence. He didn’t know what to think of the young man and his obvious intellect. Charlie could understand Pete simply because they had fought and been through some of the adventures of a lifetime that challenged them as men, but Morales was someone who lived his life outside of his world through others. Charlie came to the realization that Europa might be no different. He watched Morales as he opened what Ellenshaw knew was Pete’s 201 file from personnel. He wrote something down and held it up to the camera so Europa could see it.
“Europa, do you recognize these coordinates?” Morales was patient as the temperamental Europa read what he had written. She typed out that yes, the longitude and latitude were confirmed as the Mount Rose Cemetery in Princeton, New Jersey. “Use your satellite imagery files and bring up an aerial view, please. Zoom in on plot 2343, northeast quadrant of the cemetery.” As he waited for the satellite image to boot, Morales looked over at a curious Ellenshaw. “By the way, Professor, your choice of music may not have been likable to certain members of your rescue team, but as a PSYOP distraction I thought ‘Sugar, Sugar’ was a righteous choice,” he said, and then smiled at Charlie, who didn’t know if he was joking with him or not. Only Xavier Morales knew that if anyone else asked he would say that he had never heard of the song nor the Archies who performed it before that day in Mexico.
On the large monitor an image of New Jersey exploded to a close-up of the cemetery in question. Soon Charlie was looking at a headstone. The name was there. Peter Golding. The date of his birth and of his death. Then the simple message: “A Friend.” Ellenshaw knew the headstone well as he had been the one to place it there. Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III removed his glasses and stared at the image. Europa was motionless and it seemed even the bubble memory system slowed in its intensity behind the large glass.
Charlie didn’t know if it was right, but he started talking and for the next hour and a half Europa and Morales listened to a story about a man’s life and his death.
All sixteen department heads were present inside the large conference room. Many of the civilian personnel saw the new additions and politely nodded. They watched as Master Chief Jenks came through the doorway dressed in a lab coat and carrying his newly issued blue coveralls all military personnel wore at Group. Compton was silent for a brief moment.
“Dr. Morales, I assume you have made progress with Europa?”
Xavier didn’t understand a thing of what was going on but he nodded and gestured toward Charlie Ellenshaw, who sat silently.
“With the assistance of Professor Ellenshaw, yes, Europa has been enlightened to certain things that had not been adequately explained to her. She is even now absorbing the new data.” He partially turned to the large monitor. “Let’s see. Europa, are you monitoring the minutes of the current meeting?”
“Yes, Dr. Morales, Europa is recording.”
All eyes went to Morales as he smiled when Europa used her voice synthesizer to answer. The familiar sexy voice was greeted with thankful sighs from Niles and Virginia, who knew that if they didn’t have a fully functional Europa, what they hoped to do would be impossible.
“Thank you,” Niles said.
“She’s not there yet, but soon will be as soon as she assimilates certain data.”
Niles nodded at Alice Hamilton. She stood and started passing out electronic tablets. “Please keep all written notes confined to these pads. They will be linked directly to Europa. There will be no, I repeat no, handwritten reports to be filed on Operation Traveler. Even if successful, this technology can never be confirmed by any written word. It’s just too dangerous.”