Geneticus Book Zero (COMPLETED)

Chapter XVII

Cenerea, 3rd planet from the star Letria, Regalius,

The Confederation, Central Region, The Capitol City, Beneath Univ-Trans Laboratories,

Forty-One And One Half Cenerean Years Ago

Wendy and Harold ran to their 'places' like actors late to the start of a play. They scurried the moment they heard the approaching voices and footsteps coming down the corridor. The pair had been waiting nervously all afternoon for this moment. Then, with a bang and rumble the doors to their lab burst open flooding the room with all manner of uniformed personnel.

Wendy quickly ascended the stairs to gain her pre-determined vantage point above the throngs of entrants. She positioned herself behind an extremely large cloth-draped box. Wendy surveyed the scene for a moment and cleared her throat. "Ah, hem...Welcome, welcome!" Her small frame belied a surprisingly large voice that issued from her like a loudspeaker. It quickly reduced the vocal sounds of the crowd below.

Harold noted she would probably have made a good politician.

"On behalf of Chancellor Santum, I would like to welcome all of our distinguished guests, Government and Military alike, to the one and only Central Region's Military Lab. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen of the Homeland, officers of Defense, and honorable Regional officials we have a special unveiling of a project that is extremely near and dear to me. One started by my late father Gene Powell..."

The crowd erupted in applause, interrupting Wendy's speech.

"Thank you, thank you. I wish he was here with me to reveal what has now become a project of generations working together for the good of the Homeland!"

"For the good of the Homeland!" the crowd of officials chanted back followed by energetic applause.

Wendy closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, annoyed by what came next. The Chancellor had ordered her to say a few ridiculous words at the moment of the unveiling and they were ones she did not wish to speak. Regardless, the Scientist General knew better than to fight Connor over such trivial things, so she instead slowly opened her eyes and exhaled, "With no further ado, I present you with Geneticus, The Great War Machine, leading us into the Golden Age of the Homeland!" Wendy shouted as she grabbed and pulled the silvery rope designated as the release for the hidden device's cover.

Her audience's applause faded as the shiny material fell away from the A.I.'s mainframe. The assembly of people, including several heroically-awarded, battlefield-tested Military personnel, stepped backwards in fear. The crowd shielded their eyes, unable to understand what it was they were seeing.

The sight they beheld was a monstrous cubed machine; four meters tall, four meters in width, and four meters in depth; a perfectly symmetrical and foreboding beast. Geneticus' surfaces were perfectly smooth and black, painfully black like staring at an inverse sun. It was as if it was absorbing even the light around it. The mainframe's ominous appearance was exacerbated by the red undulating glow from the horizontal and vertical heat exchanger vents that looked like grooves along its seams.

A smile appeared on Wendy's face as she scanned over the onlookers. The woman glanced over at Harold. "Did Geneticus' software upgrade complete successfully?" she asked in true showman-like form.

"Yes ma'am, General Powell. The reboot completed without error!" Harold called back.

"Excellent, Harold will you please wake Geneticus, erm, The Great War Machine?" Wendy watched the young man nod and then position himself in front of a terminal station to input the boot up process.

The black cube pulsed, emitting a deep repetitious noise. Its dark surface swirled and sparkled with the flow of its 'thoughts'. The low frequency sound it generated, increased with each pulse, slowly leveling off into a dull constant rhythm like a heartbeat.