Singularity - Chapter 6: Zeke Rennet (Part 1)

Chapter 6: Zeke Rennet

“Mr. President, I have Albrick Hunter for you.” The male aide stood, without making eye contact, awaiting a response from President Rennet. The office in the Executive Residence was decorated to resemble the historic Oval Office of the President of the United States. The Executive residence was built as a modern steel and stone structure, a far removed building from the White House of old, but the office of the President was kept relatively similar. Still oval in shape, the office was decorated in the same provincial style that it had been for centuries of the old nation.

Without looking up from his desk, Zeke Rennet replied, “Well, send him in then.”

The aide signaled to the side of the door as he exited, and Albrick Hunter shuffled in, walking to the front of President Rennet’s desk, awaiting acknowledgement from the unsettlingly tall man sitting at the desk. Albrick was visibly agitated, and seemed to be itching to get something off his chest. After allowing him to stand several minutes, the president motioned with his left hand at a chair behind Albrick, and without looking up, “Are you planning to stand the whole time? Take a seat.”

Albrick sat down in a lush yellow chair. The cushion of the high backed chair absorbed Albrick’s small frame. It was deep enough and tall enough that his stocky legs were not quite long enough for his feet to touch the ground as he sat. It made him feel insignificant and small. He had a feeling that these chairs were chosen for that very effect on their occupants. One of the president’s aides, a young, pretty, slender woman with elf-like features brought Albrick a tray with a tall, thin steel cup and a small plexi-crystal pitcher filled with water. She set the tray on the table next to the chair, and filled the glass with water from the pitcher. Albrick smiled politely at the aide, “Thank you”

The president leafed through a few sheets of plasti-paper, signed his name at the bottom of one, closed the folder on his desk, and handed it to the aide, who took the paper out the door behind the president’s desk. He looked up from his desk at Albrick, and removed the mahogany-framed glasses from his face, laying them gently on the edge of his desk. He grabbed a pecan from a bowl at the front of the desk, and gestured at the bowl, “Help yourself Albrick.”

“No thank you, Mr. President.” Albrick was getting impatient, but did not want to break protocol by pushing the meeting faster than the President chose to lead.

Rennet tossed the pecan into his mouth, and spoke, his words muffled by the chewing of the nut. “So, Mr. Hunter, to what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise meeting?” He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and crossed his right ankle over his left knee, his re-conditioned patent leather shoes reflecting the light coming through the window behind Albrick. He licked a finger, and rubbed at a scuff on the side of the wooden sole.

“I received your note, and I wanted to encourage you to reconsider your decision.” Albrick did everything he could to contain his emotion, knowing it would not help his argument.

“I respect that you disagree with me, Albrick, but I made my decision, and it’s final.”

“He needs to be told, Mr. President, once they leave the Moon Base, contact with the team will be difficult, then it will be several months before we have the opportunity. I don’t wish that sort of delay, sir.”

“I understand your concern, Albrick, but what do we do when he wants to return for the funeral? The team can’t leave the base without him. The return trip would be too costly, and would result in an unnecessary delay in the mission timeline.”

Albrick sat forward in his chair, gazing intently at Rennet, “Sir, no such delay would happen, I just want Elliot to know that his father has died, we owe him that dignity, for all that he is doing for us.”

The president uncrossed his legs, sat forward, grabbing a folder from the top of the stack on his desk. His tone flat, “We can let him know once he returns to the Moon Base after the Mars leg of the mission, Albrick, it’s only a few months, and it doesn’t make that much difference, the man is already dead, there’s nothing he could do to change that now, it’s not worth compromising the mission.”

Albrick leapt from his chair, and raised his voice in anger, “The mission? Are you so dense to think that telling the man about his father will cause him to leave the mission? Do you have no faith in my training program? Or his devotion to the program?”

The president got out of his chair, stood up, towering head and shoulders above Albrick. He leaned forward, hands on the desk, furrowing his brow, he looked down at Albrick. “Dense? I think you are forgetting who you are talking to, Hunter. Would you care to revise that last statement?”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have called you dense.” Albrick was in a haze, not fully aware of everything around him, his mind was spinning in anger, his vision shaky as the room appeared to revolve around him. “Heartless would be more appropriate.”

The president sat down, and in his unaffected voice, “Yes, well, sometimes it’s necessary for the greater good.” He picked up his glasses from the desk and placed them on his nose, opening the folder he had grabbed.

“Spoken like a man who made his billions selling defective machines that pump disease through the cities of the world.” Albrick stared at the massive man sitting behind the desk, amazed at how he could be so disaffected by any kind of human emotion.

“Albrick, get some rest, you seem tired.” He pushed a button on the desk, and the male aide opened the door through which Albrick had entered. Albrick glared at the President, who had already moved on to his folder, and refused to look up.

“Sir, the president is very busy, please follow me.” The male aid held out his hand, inviting Albrick to exit the room.

Albrick turned on his heel, bumped into the small table with the water pitcher, causing the cup to fall off the tray to the floor. He continued to the door, taking no notice of what he just did. He walked past the aide, who put a hand on his back as he stormed out of the office and closed the door behind.

The president sighed without looking up from his folder, pushed a second button, “Dania, would you come in here please, Mr. Hunter spilled his water.” He continued reading as the door behind him opened, and the pretty, young aide walked in with a towel.

The president looked up over the top of his glasses as she wiped up the spilled water, unable to miss the way her black skirt tightened around her hips as she bent down. He remembered at that moment exactly why he had hired her. She replaced the glass on the tray, piled the towel next to it, and picked the tray up to carry it out of the room.

“Thank you, Dania.” The president smiled. “You should know how much I appreciate the work you do for me, Dania. I look forward to seeing your career develop.”

Dania smiled, flattered at the compliment. “Thank you sir, It’s an honor to work with you.”

The President’s eyes followed Dania as she left the room. He grinned and shook his head slightly as he grabbed a walnut from the bowl, and returned to his document.

Singularity Chapter 5: Bruck

Ok, so I enjoyed writing this chapter. I think it's one of my best so far. I could be wrong, feel free to tell me such in the comments below.

Chapter 5: Bruck

Bruck had been feeling worse every day since Elliot went back to New Washington. Knowing that he would see Elliot soon made him forget his illness before the visit, but once that visit was done, he began to decline. The coughing was getting more frequent, and lasted for much longer intervals. It felt as if he were coughing almost constantly now.

The doctor had been uncertain what the cause of his coughing was, but attributed it much to the low air quality in his sector of the city, and lowering oxygen levels throughout the city. The air recyclers were working full time now, and weren’t able to keep up with the demand. Cheslie had been taking odd jobs here and there, saving up to buy a home unit air recycler, hoping to help with their air at home, but even that wasn’t helping much.

His body was feeling weak, and his muscles were starting to deteriorate. He could no longer work, the demands of his job being too heavy for his weakened body. He spent most of his time in bed, watching news reports, and reading books.

Cheslie brought the doctor into the room, and walked over to her father. “Dad, Dr. Schindler is here to take a look at you. Are you feeling up to it?” She gently rubbed his shoulder, and was disturbed by the way she could feel the bones of the joint without the muscular shoulder she was used to. She hated to see him this way, and could hardly stand to stay in the room for long.

“Hello Bruck, I just wanted to take some tests and let you know a few of the things we’ve been figuring out. How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling ok Frankton. My lungs haven’t been hurting as much lately, but my stomach has been pretty bad. I can’t eat much anymore. Anything other than water makes me sick.” He began coughing, and didn’t stop for a few minutes. Cheslie left the room, at the edge of tears.

Dr. Schindler sat in the chair next to the bed, and avoided eye contact with Bruck while he coughed. He pretended to look through some papers, and study what they said, but he already knew what was on them, and reading again would not change that. He had been seeing more cases like Bruck’s for the past few months, and had heard from doctors around the world who were seeing the same sorts of problems.

As the coughing stopped, Frankton looked over at Bruck, “Well, Bruck, we’re starting to get a little more information about your cough. It seems that this has been happening more frequently lately. It appears to be a disease called Tuberculosis, which was common at one point a long time ago. The disease seems to have become somewhat eliminated at one point, but it has been showing up more commonly of late. It seems to thrive in the poor air quality that is in most cities. Unfortunately, the disease doesn’t show signs until it is fairly advanced, and by that point, it’s hard to change the course. We will try giving you some medication that should help, but most of the strains that have survived are drug-resistant due to over-medication in the past. I wish there was more I could do for you. I can give you some pain relievers to help with the aches. Otherwise, just get some rest, and eat if you think you can. I’ll be back in a few days to check in.”

He left two bottles of medication on the table across the room, and turned to look back at Bruck, he was falling asleep, and his body was trembling slightly from the muscle fatigue. He shook his head slightly and walked out into the hall closing the door behind him. He saw Cheslie slumped against the wall sobbing into her hands. He walked over to her, and sat down against the wall across from her. He put a hand on her foot, and she looked up.

“Sorry, Dr. Schindler, I have such a hard time looking at him lately. I remember a man who was so strong and independent. I don’t recognize the person laying in that room. That’s not the man who raised my brother and me by himself. I don’t know who that is, but the disease has taken my father from me. Is he going to be ok?” She choked back the tears as she asked the question.

“It’s hard to say, Ches, he is very sick, and we don’t know a lot about his disease, because it was thought that it didn’t exist anymore. I left two medications on the table. You can give him the pain relievers when he asks for them, but the other one he can only have one per day. Otherwise, he just needs to rest. Try to think about the Bruck you love, and hopefully that will help.”

Cheslie got up to walk the doctor to the front door. He gave her a hug as she opened the door, “Please, let me know if there’s anything Marylee and I can do for you, anything at all.” And then he was gone.

Cheslie went back inside and thought about all the great times she could remember. She remembered the day that Dad had brought home their first computer. She knew how much it must have cost him, but he insisted it wasn’t expensive, and that they needed it for their schoolwork. Or all the times he had taken a day off of work to watch her debate matches. Or the first time she had gone to New Washington to visit Elliot, and the tears she saw in the corner of his eye that day. She realized that he lived his life for Elliot and her. Everything he ever did was to give them a better life. He never thought about himself, only them.

She was sad that Elliot couldn’t be there for her right now. She thought about him, thousands of Kilometers away, off the planet at the moon base. She wished that he had known what was happening with their dad. But Bruck had insisted that Elliot not know he was ill. He put on a great show of being fine. He had worn heavy shirts to hide his thinning body, and held back the coughing as much as possible. Cheslie had to do everything in her power to keep from letting Elliot in on the secret, but it was what Bruck had wanted. He didn’t want his illness to keep Elliot from following this dream.

Everything he did was for Cheslie and Elliot.

Cheslie heard Bruck calling her name from his room, so she went in there by him. He was sweating and flushed, and his breathing was irregular. She brought him a pain reliever, and a glass of water, and held his head up while he swallowed. He coughed a little as she lowered his head back to the pillow.

“Cheslie, sit down.” Bruck’s voice was weak, almost a whisper, raspy and airy, as if coming out of a ghost. Cheslie took the chair next to his bed, and held his hand. She wiped his forehead with a towel.

“Is there anything you need, Dad? Are you too warm?”

“Just you…Sit with me Ches…” There were long pauses between phrases, as if each thing he said were so exhausting that he needed to gather strength to speak again. “Dr. Schindler…Says I have…Tuberculosis…”

“I know dad, I spoke with him. He said you should rest.”

“Elliot.”

“Elliot is at the Armstrong Base, Dad, he couldn’t be here.”

“He’s there…” Bruck coughed quietly, and pointed at the video screen on the wall. There was a video of Elliot’s team arriving at the Armstrong Moon Base. The news reporter was talking about the equipment and supplies they had brought to the base, and said they would be doing research at the Moon base for six months.

Cheslie squeezed Bruck’s hand, “He’s safe, Dad, the team made it safely.”

“Good…so proud of both…Tell…New Washington…”

“Dad, you’ve been there.”

“Elliot… New Wash…” A slight cough told Cheslie that the talking was hard for Bruck.

Cheslie wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. But she decided to tell him the story about when she had first met Sarah. She told him about how she had mistakingly believed she was Elliot’s girlfriend, and had treated her so awfully, only to later find out that she was his professor and friend. She said how they had laughed so hard over tea, and had become such good friends. That was the trip where Elliot told her about the Artemis program. She told him about the Surface Studies building, and how Elliot had taken her to the surface research platform one day, about how beautiful the view was of the open ocean, and the mountains. How wonderful it was to see for such a long distance, longer than even in New Washington.

She had been talking so much she didn’t notice how his breathing had changed. She started to feel his grip on her hand loosen, and she looked at him. His eyes were nearly closed, and his breathing had slowed. It was regular now, but weak. “Dad, do you need anything? Are you ok?”

“Love…Ches…Elliot…”

“I love you too, Dad, Elliot and I both do.”

His eyes closed, and his breathing continued slowly, quietly. His grip on her hand released, and she kept holding on to his.

His breathing was slow, quiet, rhythmic. His body had stopped trembling, he had stopped sweating. He was relaxed.

He inhaled slowly, quietly, a slight smile came across his lips.

Exhale slowly, quietly.

Inhaled slowly, quietly.

Exhaled.

There was no more coughing. No more pain.