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B*e**ng Manufacturing Site #8

Tarkel Jungle

April 10, 1984 RE

At long last we had finally arrived at the facility. The name of the company that had built the building was lost to time, but it was hard to believe that they had built multiple facilities like this one. There must have been other companies that existed on the Earth that had also been building matching facilities. For someone in my time it is just hard to imagine the demand for flying vehicles being so high. The skies must have been chocked with traffic at one point in time. There were a few other things about this facility that made it much more convenient than I thought it would be, especially for some of my larger companions.

Multiple entrances had been constructed at multiple sizes, some of them far larger than the largest of my companions. It was like they had planned for an emergency like this or they had manipulated the sizes of their own employees for their own reasons. Since all of the normal sized people were riding on their larger companions, we all just used the larger entrances. Col. Miller and a few of his soldiers were going in and searching the place first, at least a small portion of it since it would take days to explore the entire thing. That caused a little bit of a stir among the remaining members of my science party. They were afraid the giant Colonel and his men were going to damage something. It did not help that the Colonel as well as the rest of his soldiers had continued to grow over the past couple of days.

The Colonel was still the tallest, but just barely. Earlier this morning Private Hunter had had a rather large growth spurt and caught up to Colonel Miller. The two had consented to being measured, the Colonel probably allowed it to help amuse everyone and keep morale up after that last battle. Everyone placed their bets on who they thought was taller. The Colonel's ears were not allowed to count, but he still came out about two inches taller than the young alligator. It did not make that much of a difference since that two inch difference still made the private a staggering 318 feet and seven inches tall. Tracy was not exactly slacking off with her growth spurts. She had grown with me on her shoulder on the way to this facility today and she had reached about 200 feet in height. These growth spurts were really starting to get to everyone. They were worried about how all of their relationships were going to be affected just as much, if not more, than Tracy and I were. She was already at the size where having a wedding was going to be awfully awkward.

Something as amazing as the facility was enough to make everyone forget about their worries for a moment. The inside of the place was a little dusty, but otherwise intact. It was as if there was something in the facility that was keeping the jungle from swarming into the place like it did with more primitive ruins. I could think of many people that would like to get a hold of something that could do that as well as the thing that could keep it powered without any maintenance for a few millennia. Even though we were only in what appeared to be the lobby of the building it was impressive enough. It would have been possible to fit someone as tall as a small mountain into the room and still had plenty of space for others. Furniture and pictures of various sizes decorated the room as well as some impressive models of B*e*ng products throughout the ages. I had to wonder how everyone could have traveled around so easily in the building if they were all my size.

We were all so busy looking forward that we nearly missed the reception desk right next to the doors. I guess that it made sense for it to be located there instead of on the opposite side of the room when the opposite side of the room was so far away for normal sized people. There was only one receptionist desk and it was obviously meant for people more my size. Something was sitting behind the desk too, but it was not a person. It was a large six armed sky blue robot that looked like it had been installed behind the desk.

"Tracy, can you put me down so I can get a closer look at that thing?" I asked.

"Sure, just be careful around it," she said.

As I approached the thing I was surprised to see that not even a thin layer of dust seemed to be on the thing. It looked just as clean and shiny as I would have expected a brand new robot to look like. When I was within a foot of the robot the red lights arranged in triangular formation in what passed for its head lit up and the robot said, "Greetings and welcome to Boeing Manufacturing Site number eight. I am service unit Terry. How may I be of service?"

Startled would have been a vast understatement to describe how I felt at that moment. Even the soldiers had weapons drawn and pointed at the thing. The scientists were staring in awe, that robot was the most advanced piece of working technology that any of us had ever seen. Everything we found was normally broken and we had to try and figure out what it did and how it would work if it was not broken. It was a frustrating process. Now, here was an actual functional robot that had a working power source even after all this time. It seemed impossible, but we could all see that it was definitely working.

After I recovered from my shock I said, "Hello Terry, I am looking for a craft capable of getting me and a few of my companions into space. Is there one of those vehicles here?"

A few screens built into the desk in front of Terry lit up and it tapped a few buttons on the screen before responding. "This is highly unusual. There do not appear to be any craft capable of meeting your needs at the moment. I really must apologize, we normally have dozens of craft like that built every few minutes. If you would be willing to talk to a sales representative I am sure he or she would be able to help you," Terry said, sounding slightly distressed.

"Terry, I think everyone in your sales department is dead," I said uncomfortably, "Everyone that used to work here is dead by now."

"That can't be," said Terry, "You must be...wait...I have just conferred with some of the other AIs on site and they confirm that it has been a much longer time since my last activation than I had realized. It appears this facility now legally qualifies as salvage. Do you wish to claim it?"

I heard Colonel Miller and his men returning from his little scouting mission further into the facility as I answered, "Yes."

"I will need your name and the name the person that will inherit this facility in the event of your untimely demise."

"My name is Larry Sanders," I said and then looked back at Tracy, "and I guess my fianc辿e Tracy Stone over there should inherit this facility in the event of my death." Everyone present had to have heard what I said. A couple of the scientists looked a little betrayed that I had decided to hand over the facility to a soldier instead of one of them, but most of them were smiling at me. That was the first time I had admitted that we were getting married to anyone else yet. What puzzled me was why all of the soldiers looked horrified at what I had just said, even Tracy and the normally expressionless Col. Miller.

"You're really getting married Private Stone?" asked the Colonel.

"Yes sir," Tracy responded halfheartedly.

I asked, "Um, did I do something wrong?"

"Larry," responded Tracy, "getting married counts as future plans. We never talk about future plans on a mission. That just about triples your chances of getting killed."

I almost sighed with relief. It was just a military taboo that I had violated. I thought that I had just done something much worse. My relief quickly wore off when the Colonel pronounced, "We're going to have to marry the two of you now."

Before I could get out a single word Tracy said, "Agreed."

It was not until later that I discovered anyone of above the rank of major had the legal authority to marry people in Caressee instead of just admirals and generals like in Virania. I found myself swept up in one of Tracy's hands and held up next to her face while Col. Miller started on his impromptu ceremony. It was a pretty quick version of what would normally take place at an actual wedding ceremony and the Colonel had made it to the 'I do' part of the ceremony before my mind could grasp that I actually was getting married already and without much ceremony. It was having an even harder time excepting that the Colonel had just put a mission to save civilization on hold just to marry us.

Tracy had to tap me on the back to make me realize that the Colonel had just asked me the big question. At first all I could do was stutter until I looked deep into Tracy's eyes. I could see that this ceremony was just as serious to her as if we were doing this in the location of our choosing with our families present. All the love was there and I could see her gently urging me to answer the question. My stuttering stopped and I managed to clearly say, "I do."

Then it was Tracy's turn to smile at me and say, "I do." We shared one of the most awkward kisses that I could have ever imagined while everyone present cheered and whistled. "I still expect a ring," Tracy whispered to me.

"Ahem," uttered Terry, "Now that that is through there are still a few more matters that need to be settled. For one thing I can see that the sensors are detecting many of those present are part animal. Does that mean the ban on combining human and animal genes has been lifted?"

Everyone present shared looks with each other and we all tried to explain the existence of the anthros to him properly. We all thought he would have a hard time understanding since he was just a machine, but he seemed to understand us very easily. I guessed that was because he was much closer to being a true artificial intelligence than we had initially suspected.

"Very well then, I am pleased that your benefactor has legal origins," said Terry. "Now the other thing I need to talk to you about is the condition of this facility. I assume that it is likely you would want the craft you previously requested constructed as soon as possible, but there has been some damage done to this facility that makes it impossible at the moment."

I could almost see everyone's heart sink at that comment. Nobody wanted to hear something like that after everything we went through getting here, after all the friends and comrades we had lost. Even our captives looked disheartened at that one. I asked, "Terry, why is that impossible?"

"Because a 900 foot tall crested eagle has managed to get into the facility and do some damage to the production lines while making its nest and it has also damaged the last functioning maintenance units that were left in the facility," responded Terry.

"If we could get rid of the eagle could you or something else in this facility tell us how to repair the damage done?" asked the Colonel.

"There are many security protocols, most added during that dreadful war, that are supposed to prevent any of the units here from providing you with that information," explained Terry. "Fortunately, the previous owner of Boeing insured that whoever owned these facilities would always have access to such information. So, as long as Mr. Sanders authorizes the distribution of such information I believe you can be provided with the information necessary to complete the repairs you require."

"Alright then, I guess my team has a bit more work to do before your team can start theirs Doctor Sanders," the Colonel said to me, putting emphasis on the doctor for Terry's sake.

I hoped handling a 900 foot tall bird of prey would only qualify as a bit of work. "I wish you luck Col. Miller," I said before turning back to talk to Terry, "Terry, about how much longer can this facility continue to function?"

"We are currently operating on emergency power, but if you only use what is essential for your needs I believe that this facility can continue functioning for another eight to nine days," answered Terry.

"And how many craft do you think you can build for, um, a multi-sized crew in that time frame?"

"With the supplies at hand I believe it would be possible to build two or three dozen of them. We could actually build them in a single day, but there are just not enough essential parts on site to construct more. I apologize for the inconvenience sir, but we have not received new shipments in quite some time and our production capabilities are extremely low at the moment," said Terry.

I blinked rapidly trying to process what I had just been told. Two or three dozen craft capable of reaching orbit just sounded unreal to me. All we had to do was handle a giant bird and we would be able to reach our true ultimate destination in no time at all. I had never really thought we would be able to get a facility like this functional in less than a decade. The technological gap was just too wide for us to restore something this advanced without years worth of study. Things were actually looking up for us. It just might have been possible for us to avoid a global catastrophe after all, as long as we could repair the problems with whatever was wrong up in orbit. That last devastating attack unleashed during the Enders War was supposed to have spread through the various facilities in orbit just like they had on the Earth. That meant that those facilities would hopefully be in as pristine condition as this facility. There might just be some robot up there waiting for us to come and help it like this one. If that was true then it might be possible for us to fix this entire situation by the end of the month.

"Thank you, that should be quite sufficient Terry. We might be taking one of those craft up into orbit. There may be others that show up here later wearing uniforms similar to the soldiers around me. That indicates that they are from the nation of Caressee. The other craft that are built are for their use," I said.

"Very well, but may I ask where you intend to travel?"

"I am not exactly sure. We believe that there is something wrong with what is keeping people at the sizes they are supposed to be and we need to conduct some repairs," I said.

"I knew that quarter million year guarantee was utter nonsense. The Gatrell Corporation was always making ridiculous claims like that you know. Something has already gone wrong with their ISM grid and it has not even been 50,000 years yet. I say it is probably the fault of the substandard units that they always used," Terry said a bit haughtily. I really did think he was a true AI.

"Terry, do you know where we should go to conduct our repairs?" I asked. After that little speech of his it seemed logical that he would know something.

"Of course I do sir. If you can get this facility repaired I will make sure that the coordinates you need are loaded into a flight unit by the construction units for you," offered Terry.

I had to keep from shouting for joy as I said, "That would be wonderful Terry!"

"Of course, that all depends on your ability to handle the crested eagle that has infested this facility," Terry reminded me.

"I'm sure we can handle some overgrown bird," said Col. Miller.

"I just hope it is not that hungry with all of us being snack sized to it," I commented.

"Oh I can assure you it is very well fed sir. A significant portion of the local flora and fauna have experienced rather large growth spurts. One of the reasons this facility can only function for a few days is because there is a pest repellant device repelling all creatures over a thousand feet in height at the moment. And I can assure you that it is being done in a perfectly humane way that is causing no harm to said creatures as required by law," Terry explained. "That eagle may be one of the larger predators in the immediate area and there are plenty of other prey species around for it to feed on that are of an adequate size to sustain it. If it were just 100 feet taller then it would be repelled as well, just like some of the larger predators that chased it here. I'm surprised you never encountered any of those predators if you walked here. They must not have been interested in things as small as yourselves or they would have made their presence known."

Those last couple of statements left many of us shaken. There were a lot of monsters out there and we had somehow managed to avoid all of them. Once we handled this eagle we were going to have to figure out how to contact those that were following us to warn them about the danger. I was also having a hard time thinking of a 900 foot tall eagle as one of the smaller predators in the area and that it had been chased here by other larger predators. It looked like everything Terry said could not be good news.

"Thank you for informing us about that Terry. You have been very useful to us," I said.

"You are quite welcome sir, I was created to serve. When you are ready just step on the tele pads over there and you will be transported to the room next to the one that the eagle has chosen as its nest," said Terry while pointing at circular areas that were surrounded by black and yellow stripped paint. Then he just seemed to shut down, sensing that I was done with him. I guessed that was one way to help conserve energy.

"Looks like all we have to do is fry one bird and then we'll have it easy," said Tracy.

"Frying a 900 foot tall bird doesn't sound all that safe to me," I said.

"It sounds kind of tasty to me," Tracy said with a smile.