“The information I received warned that Malcom believed there was a flaw in the coding. That mission included the use of more alien tech than any before it, and he believed the coding contributed to Schultz’s delusions. Let me read the quote attributed to be his last recorded words. ‘We accepted the alien hyperdrive, communications, guidance and even waste disposal technology without understanding how all of it worked. We cut and pasted it into our mission, cobbled it together like a technological Frankenstein’s monster. What we don’t understand, we should never have used.’”
Regina’s voice sounded dead in her own ears, “Now, Schultz’s pregnancy must be viewed in a wholly different light.”
Sam nodded. “We need to check the code. Until we understand what is happening, Phase One needs to stop.”
No one spoke for a while – all of them stunned to hear those words come out of Sam’s mouth.
Regina broke the silence. “One of the women delivered while Tellez and I visited the medical office.”
Everyone looked at her, and she felt a chill.
Chauncy asked, “Did you see the baby?”
“Yes, sort of,” Regina began, “but it was heavily swaddled in a blanket so we did not see the baby itself. The bundle moved, and it looked like a babe was inside.”
Sam asked in a husky voice, “Did the mother survive?”
“Dr. Hamblin reported that she was doing fine, but we did not see her. There was a fair amount of blood.” The eyes from her group made her feel nervous. Perhaps she should have done more at the medical office. Guilt and doubt filled her, and she knew she should not talk about it further.
Sam rose from the chair at the desk and motioned for Braxton to take his place. “While Braxton looks into the coding, and designs a method for assignments to be made for his team back in Houston, Chauncy and I will call a video conference with as much of the Board as may be gathered. We’re going to freeze the project until we know more.”
Regina was surprised this decision had not infuriated her husband. At a minimum, it would cost the company millions. But there was an unfamiliar look in his eyes. Fear? She spared a look back at the factory floor and noticed more women had gathered around the base of the stairs, dozens stood there, looking up at her. They did not seem as frightening as they had at first. If they meant the group harm, they would have attacked. No, they were just women in shock, trying to figure out what had happened to them. She could see it now.
Braxton wiped the sweat from his eyes with the bottom of his shirt. “Mr. Jenkins, this could take years. I have no idea what to look for. It’s like trying to find a specific item in a thousand-square-mile flea market, without knowing for sure what the item is. This could take years.”
Sonya leaned in, next to the young genius and said, “Search for this imprint sequence in the coding.” She jotted something down on a scratch pad on the desk.
“What’s that?” Braxton said through his thick mustache.
“A derivative overlay, like a subtext or footnote to primary DNA strands that relates to the event of a woman becoming pregnant.” Her accent was hypnotic.
Regina blinked to pull her focus back. Her mind wanted to drift. A tickling thought tried to force itself forward, associated with emotional urgency. There was something she should be thinking about or doing, but muddled thoughts would not let her mind settle on what it was. She found her chair and sat back down. “You don’t think there’s anything in the water that made them pregnant, do you?” she asked no one in particular.
Gullivan came to her side and looked at her with compassion. Or was it suspicion? People could be difficult to read. He said, “Probably not the water, but I think we are definitely looking at Third Contact.”
“We can’t get the link up!” Sam growled. “Gullivan, come and see if you can help with this.”
Gullivan gave Regina a concerned look, but hurried to where Sam and Chauncy huddled over another computer.
Regina swiveled her chair to look at the factory floor again. Several of the women held guns, military style rifles with large clips of bullets. The men were hurrying to the left side of the room, and the women congregating to the right, around the stairs to the office and the path leading out of the factory. She thought she should alert the others, but they seemed so occupied with the tasks her husband had ordered them to follow.
“Mr. Jenkins! Mr. Perez! Look!” Tellez shouted from near the door and pointed at what was happening on the factory floor.
I must be in shock, Regina worried, knowing intellectually that her behavior and reactions were off.
Women were standing on the stairs themselves now, too.
“Call for additional security, bring everyone from the dock if we have to!” Chauncy barked. Gone was the sophisticated Ivy League-trained businessman.
Tellez clicked his headset and started barking out orders.
“We have shut down the satellite uplink from the island,” a woman’s voice said confidently over the loudspeaker. A voice familiar to Regina – Dr. Hamblin’s voice.
Regina looked down and saw Dr. Hamblin near the control post at the center of the factory floor, though she was so far away that it was hard to see the details of her face and expression.
“Pull her up on the monitors,” Chauncy said.
The technician at the center of the monitor bank typed a dozen quick strikes with his fingers and Dr. Hamblin’s face filled nine of the monitors in the center of the wall. It was ten feet across and reminded Regina of the wizard’s face from the old classic movie “Wizard of Oz.”
“Clearly,” Dr. Hamblin said confidently, “you are all suffering from some kind of mania or mass hysteria. As the chief medical officer of this facility, I am putting you under quarantine and cutting off your access before you can spread lies that compromise the efficient release of Phase One.”
“Keep working,” Sam said, desperation cracking his voice.
Braxton’s group turned back to their computer while Gullivan and Chauncy’s technician pounded keys near the bank, desperately seeking a connection.
Dr. Hamblin continued, “Please exit the office and come directly to medical.”
Sam grabbed the microphone connected to the speakers and said, “If we are the delusional ones, why have you taken up guns and forced the men to the far side of the floor?”
Dr. Hamblin’s huge face smiled. “To prevent your hysteria from spreading. You appear severely emotionally distraught and on the verge of incoherence. Look at how you sweat!”
“I am Sam Jenkins, the CEO of Jenkins Industries, and you all work for me. I want all of the women on the stairs and beyond to stand aside and let us leave the facility. That is my directive. Please do not violate this or you will be in breach of your employment contract.” Sweat dripped from his face.
Regina wondered if Dr. Hamblin was right, her husband did appear ill. None of the women moved an inch in response to his directive.
“Found it!” Braxton said. “The sequencing Velasquez mentioned, it’s here. And, there’s more. Complete DNA stranding was broken up and embedded into the code in thousands of places. Millions, perhaps. The sequencing Velazquez identified was a trigger of sorts that drew these DNA strands together from the immense body of code.”
Carpenter studied the DNA strand on the computer monitor. “It’s definitely not human.” His voice sounded subdued. Gone was the levity from the flight. “Not from Earth. See, this strand here, and these pairings. There is so much here that I don’t understand. We have to report this to Houston. To the government. Gullivan’s right, we’re looking at Third Contact.”