Good, I trust you’ve taken some time to think things over. Now here’s the situation, if you look about ten feet to the right of where the envelope was, you will see a small trail. Follow it.

Alec looked up, spotting the path beyond the heavy brush, and started towards it. The trail was about seven feet wide and had obviously been used recently, since there was no vegetation for the entire width and the sand was firm, it looked as if planks of some sort had been laid lengthwise across it. Some heavy equipment must have come down this way Alec thought.

Alec had followed the trail for about 50 paces when he spotted the dark green structure at the end. He soon came into a rather large clearing; the trees had been taken out for at least a 70 foot radius from the 8 foot high building. His grandfather was never really a Save the Rainforest type of guy, although Alec was trying to change that.

The cone shaped building was roughly 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. With two small adjoining wings on the back side.

The door was now directly in front of him.

To the left of the door was a small blue sign, which said “RUBB BUILDING SYSTEMS. Sanford, ME We Cover The World” Alec guessed that having this sign on Alec Isle wouldn’t boost sales for RUBB this year.

(author’s note and shameless plug, my brother is the VP and General Manager of this company.)

He touched the strange looking fabric that covered the building as he opened the door. Some sort of plastic he thought. Alec was amazed when he walked through the door, the room resembled one of Grayson’s more advanced research labs, there were four computer workstations lined up on the left side of the 30 foot long room. A large desk and worktable were placed dead center.

Alec could see into the adjoining rooms now. One was a makeshift kitchen and the other sleeping quarters containing two Army cots. Probably right out of an Army surplus store Alec thought.

The Kitchen area was basically a 3 x 6 foot table with a kerosene stove on top and back in the right corner were two large crates one marked FOOD the other SUPPLIES.

Alec was amazed at the amount of light in the room and quickly glanced toward the ceiling, the roof was translucent however several lights hung unlit from the steel tubing which seemed to provide the frame of the building. Alec wondered what supplied the power to all these computers. It was then he remembered that he was probably holding the answer to all these questions right in his hand.

Leaning against the worktable he read on.

The Trail leads to a clearing where you will find Grayson’s newest research lab. Inside you will find some of the latest technology we’ve developed. Also, you will find a sleeping area and a kitchen.

“Yeah, some kitchen” Alec said looking over his shoulder.

I deliberately made your living quarters somewhat drab, in the hopes that it would motivate you to build your own.

You should find that the Lab is quite suitable for your work here. The Power Grid for the building is located at the back of the lab. Walk to it.

Alec made his way over to the Grid.

There are five buttons at the top of the board, each one engages a photovoltaic battery. Turn them on.

Alec pushed the buttons and the room slowly came to life. The overhead lights flickered on, to the bleeps and whirrs of the Grayson Computers as they booted themselves. The circuit board now resembled a blinking Christmas tree, with red and green lights running up and down it.

Alec continued reading…

Grayson Scientists were able to develop a Photovoltaic polymer using Nano-Technology. The Rubb Building’s skin is coated with this Polymer which turns the entire building into a giant solar panel.

The sun hits the cells charging the batteries each day from 10 am to 4 pm. The sunlight is blocked by the trees after 4pm. At full energy output each battery has a life of two hours.

Basically, what these means is you can’t use the computers more than ten hours a day. The batteries can not be activated until they are fully charged or they will lose their ability to recharge completely the next time.

You’re going to have to find other things to occupy your time, Alec. You and I will be able to communicate via email. I will contact you one week from today at 1800 hours. Please be at the terminal. In regard to the type of work your doing. I’m going to let you figure it out.

Have fun!

Alec put the papers on the table and sat down on what appeared to be the most comfortable chair in the room. It was then he looked at the door at the end of the room.

It was steel, not thick but definitely solid, there was no knob but a small indentation with which you could slide the door into the frame of the wall. Funny he thought that his grandfather had not mentioned what was behind it. He stood up and curiously approached the door, it slid open quite easily and Alec found himself staring into total darkness.

He reached for a light switch on the other side of the door and after a few seconds of groping he located it. The flip of the switch revealed a very strange sight.

“What is this?” Alec asked the virtually empty room.

All four walls, the ceiling and even the floor were coated black. The switch on the wall didn’t exactly turn on a light but instead illuminated a thin white strip on the floor which ran along all four walls.

In the center of the room was a big black recliner with what appeared to be a computer monitor attached to the arm of it, the monitor looked to be about 20 inches square, yet only one inch thick, Alec had never seen one quite like it

(author’s note, this was written 14 years ago)

Alec walked over and nestled softly into the big chair, that’s weird, Alec thought. There were no buttons, not a keyboard in sight and no instructions of any kind in the room. The monitor was blank except for the cursor in the upper left corner.

It must be voice activated, he thought.
“Computer.” Alec said.
No response.
“Activate”
Again no response
“Help.” using the standard computer term for instructions.
“Please identify?” said a polite sounding masculine voice, coming from a speaker, located on the bottom of the monitor.

The voice took him by surprise and he jumped an inch. He was also surprised that he had not noticed the speaker before. Looking at the screen he saw that the cursor was now replaced with the words of the voice.

After several seconds the voice and the screen repeated.
“Please identify?”
“Alec Grayson.”
“Hello Alec. My name is Gray. What can I do for you today?”

Alec smiled, he had done some work at MIT with voice recognition systems and had written a paper on Artificial Intelligence, and knew Grayson was working on AI.

“Gray, tell me about yourself?”

“My name is Gray; I was activated on November 26, 2004. I have been programmed to assist you with your research.”

“And just what is my research, Gray?”
“Accelerated learning through DX81 induced REM, Alec.”
“Can you be more specific?” Alec asked

“DX-81 is a drug developed by Grayson researchers which places its user in a deep meditative state similar to deep REM sleep and hynopsis, when prompted with data the subconscious mind absorbs the information 20 times faster than the conscious mind.

(author’s note.. once again.. 14 years ago.. pre-Matrix. my inspiration was actually the movie Brainstorm)

“Wow, and the monitor supplies the data”
“All monitors supply Data, Alec”
“The headset below the chair supplies the learning data”

Looking beneath the chair Alec saw the hi-tech goggles that resembled night-vision glasses.

“Does DX-81 have any side effects?”
“DX-81 is combination of 13 different botanical species; its only known side effect is a slight headache if taken more than once a day”

“What does DX stand for?”

“I’m sorry Alec; I am not allowed to give you additional information at this time.”
“Why not, Gray?” Alec asked.

“Computer access is denied until Thursday May 22 at 1800 hours.”
“Why until th-.. Wait that’s when Grandfather is contacting me.”

“Correct, he wishes you to utilize the time assimilating to you new environment, Alec”
“Your grandfather also wishes me to tell you that if you attempt to access this program you will be locked out of the system permanently.

“Initial contact sequence is now complete, Alec see you in 173 hours 12 minutes and 47 seconds. Gray out”

Alec stood silently at the computer screen pondering a reply, but nothing came to mind he would simply have to wait. He examined the Goggles for several minutes then stepped out of the chamber.

Making his way over to the cot he flopped himself down flat on his back and proceeded to stare at the translucent ceiling until it faded to black.

He awoke minutes after the sunlight had made its way through the ceiling and rose with a purpose. It seemed apparent that the hours spent refocusing his existence the night before had paid off. Walking over to the mirror on the far wall he took a long look at himself. He leaned forward his hands pressed against the wall.

“Day One.” Alec muttered. “Make the most of it.”

Posted by on Friday, March 10th, 2006 at 4:30 pm.