Chapter Four
Vincent and Ted had things in common; both had been infected with a powerful virus not of this world. The entities; the Smota, within van Gogh were themselves imprisoned and ineffective within a feeble and abnormal Human, and they all perished upon his death. Another distinct and opposite virus (Dwarg had identified and called them Matos) found their way from beyond the Aura, to infect one Theodore; The Unabomber, Kaczinski. This virus was still active.
Prior to leaving the physical, Dwarg had studied the reports of the human Kaczinski and saw at once that the Matos were guiding his actions. Humans at least had this person isolated from the majority group. This was satisfactory as it would not to allow the Matos to further direct that Human.
Dwarg explained to Slig, the story of how this particular Human was led to believe that by ending the existence of a few Humans, others would understand that the scientific progress of Humans was harmful to the planet. The Matos had been particularly clever in guiding this Human, who himself was knowledgeable of the scientific levels of the now. Dwarg pointed out how for many Human years, the Human Kaczinski had not been detected by others seeking his capture.
“Dwarg, it would appear that the Matos have rather the same objective as we Whisps. Am I correct in saying that there is some deception in their undertakings? What would be so wrong with the Matos virus ridding the planet of all living things? didn’t Whisps consider the same thing?”
“Slig, don’t forget my concerns about the Aura. We could certainly exist without Humans, but what about the remaining creatures and the extra-terrestrial viruses and matter that will continue to enter the Aura? They will eventually turn to our world of the non-physical and carry on with their path of destruction. At least we have identified the threat and can protect ourselves using the Humans – even if they don’t know it themselves.”
“Dwarg, we still have the problem of the Swirl Chaos.”
“The Human Albert Gore will help us with that Slig. It depends on which virus has infected him and how receptive he may be for some of our own input data. He, unlike Kaczinski, has not yet been isolated by the majority group.”
“Mmm...Dwarg, do you feel it? I feel something, strange but attractive, a sensation of some kind; it is, it is...favourable.”
“Ah yes Slig, our host has ingested a substance taken from a large plant, a tree. It’s called maple syrup, mmm...I also...enjoy.”
“Dwarg, did you notice that the fuel for sustaining living creatures on the planet, comes by consuming other living or dead creatures and organisms.”
“Yes, most do, but there are other fuels that are ingested, just like this mmm...maple syrup. The world of the physical is strange indeed Slig.”
-oOo-
Edna came back from her little trip to Brattleboro. She scuffed the slush from her boots and began to hang up her brightly coloured raincoat when she sensed all was not right. Even before she opened the inner door to the house, she prepared herself for something being amiss. “Aggie, are you all right? what’s happened..Aggie, where are you sweetheart?”
“In the kitchen Aunt. I just got off the phone, some awful news I’m afraid. Professor Lien is missing; Aaron, is very worried for the professor’s safety – he has no idea if it’s a kidnapping or something even worse. He’s notified all the authorities including the embassy in Algiers, and the Algerian Prime Minister’s Department; even the TSCTP. So far...not a word.”
“Oh no Aggie, that’s terrible news; how long has he been missing?”
“Two days now. Aaron did hear that the Minister for the Interior’s Office had received some reports of local commune demonstrations and protests in Adrair province but not of any significance. Anyway that’s nowhere near our plant. Aaron said he saw Professor Lien leave the site after midnight Tuesday, supposedly to go to his cabin. That was the last time anyone saw him. He just didn’t turn up in the morning and Aaron noticed that the cabin was empty and the bunk had not been slept on. As far as he knows, nothing was missing – no notes, no clues.”
“What about his Harley?”
“It’s still there aunt. This is serious; I’ll have to go there. Have to warn Jade to get the Gulfstream ready, have to notify the security staff, the embassy, the State Department and I’d better give Ambassador Amine a call. If anything bad has happened to the professor, it will be my fault. And what about Dwarg? Oh hell aunt, where do I start?”
“Whoa there princess...the same way you approach all your problems nowadays Aggie – cup of herbal tea and your electronic white board – and if you think you are just walking out of here to fly to Algeria, it will have to be over my dead body. Remember the six Ps? Now let’s all calm down and tackle this like Kellors...go wheel your board in, I’ll go boil the kettle and switch on Uncle Dan’s Abenaki Thinking Music.”
Professor Rienus Lien had been working for Kellor Resources for six years and absolutely loved the direction that fate (or as he put it...Aggie and Co) had taken him. He had left the boredom of academic isolation within the University of Oklahoma to join Aggie in building a prototype geothermal generator in Arizona. By achieving this, and other successes, he noticed that the industrialists and world governments were knocking on his door for his services. The fact that he was doing something to better mankind drove him to bigger and better methods of producing clean, cheap and unlimited energy.
The structure, blueprints, machinery and know-how came from the mind and purse of Aggie and her Aunt Edna. Initially Aggie was very much hands-on with the construction, systems and technicalities of her wild and interesting projects. Very early in the production stages, she had realized that Rienus was quite capable of undertaking the projections without her interference. He was not totally autonomous and would argue with Aggie on points not to his liking, yet there was a mutual respect and each trusted one another without reserve. With his track record, he could have easily parted from Kellor Resources to commence and realize his own empire, but he was comfortable with his young boss and visionary, the relationship of which would appear, to an outsider, somewhat strange, given the age and life experience differences. Rienus was always in awe of Aggie’s exceptional talents and grasp of sub-atomic physics, in particular, her ability to design and construct the hardware and machinery for the neutron pulsing processes.
Six or so years ago in Geneva, he had witnessed a young 11 year old Aggie Kellor conduct a hands-on atomic experiment at the LHC for CERN. The resulting trials proved her proposition as to the theory of dissipating quarks at differing and exceptional temperatures. He had quickly learnt that he should stay near this gifted girl, who later poached him away from the UO to work for Kellor Resources; he took up her offer in less than 10 seconds.
He fondly remembered the time when he questioned her about the distribution of electricity after she had explained the total set-up of the proposed geothermal plant in Arizona. Her presentation had all the bells and whistles with the schematics, the plans, the purpose built turbines and generators. “Aggie, I agree that all this is plausible and I’m in no doubt that it will generate, and yes there will be plenty of power to go around. But just look at your time frame...and, may I mention something about infrastructure?...you know those lines, the towers, the transformers and step up transformers, property acquision – not to mention all the environmental impact investigations for under and around the power lines, grids and depots along the length of the feed? Last time I looked at the map, Arizona was a rather large place.”
“Oh didn’t I tell you professor? We’re not going to use power lines to distribute the electricity; we’re going to send it directly from the plant to the point of demand.” Rienus Lien never again tried to patronize his 18 year old employer.
This latest project of Aggie’s was a little different; a geothermal generator near the middle of the Sahara Desert. The area she chose was in Southern Algeria and Rienus could not see the point of setting up energy provision in a land which already had a healthy
supply of oil and natural gas. Indeed, the hydrocarbon industry within Algeria accounted for some 60 per cent of its economy and he thought that there were many other more deserving places to invest and install a power plant.
“With this project we are going to diversify professor. You probably already know of the Tuat in central Algeria? No? Well it’s a desert region that has a string of small oases running through it; there is underground water in the sandstone beneath, and the rock layer is quite extensive, in fact it reaches under Libya and Tunisia as well. This water has been used by the inhabitants since the dawn of time by way of wells and a clever irrigation system called foggaras have been used primarily to irrigate date palms. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on which way one looks at it, large pockets of natural gas and oil have been found underneath the sandstone of the Continental Intercalary. The Algerian state-owned oil company, Sonatrach is seeking joint ventures with China and France and who knows which other probable supermajor energy partners. With me so far professor?”
“Go on Aggie, I just know this will knock my socks off.”
“The fact of the matter is that by drilling, fracking and refining oil and gas, and the ever increasing use of underground water, the water table in the Tuat will be destroyed. It’s as simple as that. I don’t want that to happen; so besides an abundance of energy, we are going to give the government and the people of Algeria, a huge amount of fresh clean water. Not the water from reserves underground, but from the sky. Our plant, in addition to providing electricity, will draw enough water from the atmosphere to irrigate vast amounts of otherwise wasted lands. The province of Adrair will become the new food bowl of Africa and hopefully, the Algerian government will abandon its quest for more oil and gas in the Sahara. So besides electricity, we are going to grow and harvest rainclouds. Any questions professor?.. Professor Lien?”
“Ah I’m just collecting my thoughts Aggie. I know Libya has already, and still is, pumping huge amounts of water trapped underground in the Sahara to places like Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirte. Ah I remember now, it’s called the Great Man-Made River; a huge project of wells and pipes; the world’s largest irrigation system. The Libyan government boasted that there was so much water to be tapped that it would flow and supply the country for a thousand years.”
“Depends which way you look at it professor. That figure may be so if there is no increase in further tapping and irrigation. I can’t believe that neighbouring countries will not also tap and utilize the water. That water is left-over from the ice-age and is never replenished. I would expect that in reality, 60 years would see the entire water table dry up or be spoilt by oil and gas pumping. You can imagine how much the temperature in the region would rise; it would become an utter catastrophe for the continent and I don’t need to tell you about the Butterfly Effect.”
“Interesting that you chose the town of Reggane in Algeria for our new project Aggie, hmm, the French did Nuclear testing there back in the 1960’s?”
“Indeed professor; now let me tell you a little about that.”
“Ah, yes Aggie, before you go on, may I first ask your Aunt for another poultice...I feel a migraine coming on.”