Conduit 2: The Conduit Saga, #2

By Adam Green

The saga continues in book two of the Conduit series.  Join the crew of the Recovery as they continue on their quest to save their home of San Diego.  Join them as they traverse from Chicago through New York on their quest to reach Norfolk and the stabilizer that will save their pod.  Can they avoid the dangers that are in the Conduit or the even greater danger lying in wait in New York?  Will they find the stabilizer that will save their city?  Follow along as the Recovery continues its quest to save their city.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam Green
• Release date: Apr 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393370130

Adam Green

Adam Green Born in small town Missouri, Adam Green continues the family teaching legacy as a fourth-generation educator.  With two decades in public school education, he encourages youth to explore new ideas.  Using the inspiration of his imaginative children and students, Green combines pirate themes with science fiction.  Conduit is the first self-published book of a trilogy.  Green lives in Texas with his wife, two sons, and multitude of dogs.  Connect with him via Twitter: @AdamCGreen95.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

From the Journal of Captain Esteban Perez:

I have always been reluctant to write down memories.  It always seems as if I had much more to do and things to get done.  But recently, I acquired some new amigos who asked many questions about my past.  That got me reflecting on adventures and exploits gone by and in turn, inspired me to write down as much as my past as I can recall. 

I selfishly hope that one day this will be used as a source book for this period of Earth’s history.  Sadly, my more rational side knows that very few will ever read this.  But, I hope that as I grow older and I lose my memory, I will have this document to refer back on to help me remember the man that I was.  With that said, bear with me.  This is the first time I have ever attempted anything such as this.  Hopefully it will be an adventure for everyone.

I was born in Portland pod one.  This was a government pod created by the former United States.  To be precise, it was a military pod focused on creating the perfect soldier.  I was born in a facility known as the Genetic Experimentation and Research Modification Shelter or GERMS as it was affectionately known.  Let me explain how Portland was organized.  It was not set up as most city pods tend to be designed.  GERMS was the centerpiece of this pod.  It was established by the old United States government to further the scientific research of the time.  Where most pod’s centers are the entertainment district, Portland’s center was where GERMS was located.  The outlying sectors such as food and energy facilities lay like spokes on a wheel.

There were no civilians in this pod.  You either lived at GERMS or were military personnel.  All food and work done to sustain the pod were done by the military.  The pod was a lockdown zone and no one entered or left without permission.  Sector one was the agricultural sector.  Sector two was the energy and oxygen sector.  Sector three was water recycling.  Sector four was general housing, and sector five was military training grounds.  All of the sectors worked for the betterment of GERMS and its mission.

The Genetic Experimentation and Research Modification Shelter established in the final days before the Burn as a way for the United States government to continue training soldiers.  The concept was that the United States wanted to have the best soldiers in the world even if the world lay in chaos.  Military training, with genetic modification therapy, with a bit of behavioral modification thrown in for good measure, was being used to develop the perfect soldiers.  Portland, dutifully continued this tradition for 400 years after the Burn.  This is where I come into the story.

I was not born in a traditional sense.  By this time in history, scientists developed such impressive cloning and genetic techniques that they could create their children as chickens lay eggs.  I suppose that is the best phrase for me.  I was hatched.  I do not know who my parents were nor does anyone else who was born in GERMS (which was most of Portland as well).  One day, my egg reached its maturation point, and a military nurse came and removed me from my comfortable womb.  I was taken to the nursery and cared for by other nurses who were our mothers until the age of two. Then we would be introduced to the Hideout.

The Hideout was our home for the next two years.  Our mothers were replaced by fathers now, who were just as military as our nurse mothers.  Looking back I can see that these two years were tests disguised as games by our fathers to discover what our modified strengths would be.  I need to mention that there were not many modified girls in Portland.  Oh, there were some for sure, but most that hatched from the eggs were genetically altered to be male.  I saw a statistic stating 85% of the eggs were male.  Females were slowly being removed from the military program.

But I digress.  The Hideout was a computer simulated program that gave boys everything they could ever want.  It was a forest wonderland one day and a beach cookout the next.  We played all of the games every little boy ever wanted and had our daddies attention for all of it.  The whole time we were being observed and measured.  We all had modifications to our genes.  We just didn’t know it yet.  Our dads knew what our mods were supposed to be and were watching for their emergence or for any deficiencies to begin to show.  Do I sound a bit angry?  Good!  We were children who didn’t know any better but these adults were ... well playing mind games with us!

Keep in mind that the information that I share now was procured by my brother by an illegal download that was made when we were on our way out of Portland.  Most of my brothers and sisters know very little of what I am sharing and the government powers keep it that way. 

Once we turned four, our modification profiles were well known to the scientists.  The Portland pod, was one of five pods spread throughout the former United States that was in charge of genetic modification and of keeping the military force intact.  According to the data we escaped with, the other four pods were located in Lincoln, Jacksonville, Lansing, and Memphis.  I have gone out of my way throughout the years to avoid all of those pods. 

Our pod in Portland had tried different methods of building the best soldier over the years to varying success.  GERMS finally decided after multiple failures, the answer to the super-soldier problem wasn’t one person but a group of them.  Train a group of four to five individuals with various strengths to act as one unit.  This is how I would come to know my friends.  I shouldn’t call them friends, they were more like family.

By the time we test subjects turned five, we were grouped with others like us.  I had the pleasure of meeting my new best friends.  Pablo Escobar, a quiet child who seemed to study everyone and everything he encountered.  Jonathan Thomas, an outgoing friendly child who never seemed to meet a stranger.  Stevie Wilson, a small child with a mischievous streak to him.  The four of us were grouped together for everything.  We shared a bedroom, ate together, took classes together, and went everywhere together under the rules and guidance of GERMS.

Our friendship would grow over the next three years.  We became brothers.  We loved each other like brothers.  We fought like brothers.  We were just one group amongst hundreds at GERMS, but we felt like it was just us.  One group who became like one person.  Which, in hindsight, is exactly what GERMS wanted from us.  At the age of eight, fun and games ended.  The Hideout program ended and instead our military training began.

Our new virtual reality program was called The Base.  We would spend every waking moment there over the next few years.  The program was designed to look like a military compound in the style of a boot camp, a base used from before the burn.  There were at least 200 boys amongst us.  Our daily routine was incredibly structured.  We would awaken in our dorms, have 30 minutes to clean ourselves, and then into the program we would go.  Breakfast was first.  Then the training would take place over the next 14 hours.  Then one more meal, and back to our dorms for sleep.

The simulation exercises of The Base consisted of physical training. A grueling obstacle course to strengthen our bodies and to teach us to work together to achieve victory.  Jonathan was our strongest team member, and he often helped the rest of us clear the course.  We often competed with other groups, so this led to growing rivalries between us and different boys.  Most times, Jonathan and Pablo would step up and help me and Stevie deal with our fights that would rise up during our off hours from training.  No one dared fight during official training times. 

The exercise was followed by military tactics training.  Here we would sit at desks and listen to a virtual instructor teach us about ancient military battles.  Each day would be a new instructor evidently based on some great leader of old.  The training might be interesting one day and boring the next.  Sometimes, I would fall asleep due to the exhaustion of the physical training. Stevie fell asleep almost every day.  Pablo never did though.  He would sit in a trance and soak up every detail the instructor had for us. 

Next, we would be herded into a giant hangar full of simulated machines of old such as tanks, airplanes, and automobiles.  We practiced dismantling old war weapons and machines and putting them back together again.  This was easily my favorite part of the training day.  Most times I would finish quickly and help Stevie, Pablo, and Jonathan with their tasks.  I had a knack for this training.  Jonathan did not.  He was easily the worst in the entire hangar.  I almost always would do my assignment and his. 

The next station would be the only time the four of us would be separated in a day.  We would have one on one virtual tutors who would teach us reading, writing, spelling, a different language other than English, and a choice of pre-burn world histories. Luckily we would get to enjoy a snack as we studied.  It was here as I scrolled through the history database that I fell in love.  I discovered the Golden Age of Piracy.  I could not get enough.  From the designs of the grand ships to the larger-than-life characters.  I was hooked.  My three amigos grew incredibly tired of hearing my stories back in our dorm.  I heard, Go to sleep, Esteban! followed by a thrown pillow more times than I can count.

The last two stations of our training day were another round of physical training followed by psychological training; a barrage of training meant to break us down.  In fact most of us did just that.  I can remember Jonathan breaking down into tears, Pablo screaming and cursing, and myself just retreating somewhere inside myself.  The only one of us that seemed to take everything thrown at us in stride was little Stevie.  It was during this training that I could see he was the biggest of all of us.  No longer the runt, but a powerhouse.

Luckily, after this was complete, we were returned to the real world.  Food and bed.  Most of us were completely asleep by the time our heads hit the pillow.  Then, up the next day to do it all again.

For five years, this would be our lives.  When we turned thirteen, all of us who hadn’t cracked under the pressure (there were quite a few, but none of us four), were given real world assignments.  Our days at the base were cut in half.  We still had physical training, military history, and our private tutors but that was it.  The rest of our days were spent with our new assignments under the watchful eye of military personnel.  This was another new idea for GERMS.  To try to reduce the number of gen-mod breakdowns, it was decided by the leaders of the government, to incorporate us into the working military population of the pod.

I was assigned to the equipment depot where I would construct weapons for the military.  It was easy for me.  I could recreate any item once I was able to get my hands on it.  I could churn out weapons faster than any in the depot.  Jonathan was appointed there as well, but his job was to move the heavy equipment from place to place.  The boy was easily the largest, strongest thirteen year old hombre I had ever seen.  No other boy in GERMS was close to his size. 

Pablo and Stevie were assigned to the Intelligence and Strategy Divisions.  Both developed quite a knack for seeing things others could not.  It was shortly after working there with others from outside of GERMS that Stevie told us, You guys want to hear something weird?  I can hear the thoughts of some of those other people.  None of us knew what to say to that so we didn’t answer.  But this would be the true start of Stevie’s problems. 

Now, I have to interject something.  Much later we discovered that most genetically modified people began breaking down at the age of fifteen.  Sometimes it would be physically, most often it would be mental breakdowns.  None of the scientists at GERMS had been able to understand why.  If the breakdowns were severe enough, the person simply disappeared, taken by the soldiers at night, never to be seen again.  Thinking back, I never remember seeing any gen-mods over the age of thirty in the pod.

But back to my story.  Roughly two years into our working/training routine, around the time we all began to turn fifteen, things began to change.  Stevie’s knack for pulling pranks on us seemed to die down overnight.  He became quieter and seemed to only talk to Pablo.  Most days, he would rise before the rest of us and be out of our dorms before we awoke.  When Stevie was around, he mumbled aloud to himself.  His childish spirit seemed to be replaced by a suspicious young man.

Pablo, too seemed different.  He was always quiet and reserved, that hadn’t changed, but now he always brought home files from work and spent all of his free time scowling over them as he read.  Any interruptions from his reading were met with an angry look and cursing.  He seemed paler than usual and he was losing weight.  He was the tallest of the four but his frame was thinning as he grew.

Even Jonathan, the most upbeat of us was different.  He wasn’t as social.  He spent his free time in the room in bed.  He was beginning to complain about constant pains and aches in his body.  At the age of fifteen!  He also complained about his job.  He was the strongest gen-mod in the pod and felt his talents were being wasted constantly moving weapons and equipment.  The truth was Jonathan wasn’t smart enough to do many other jobs in the pod. 

I’m sure I changed as well but I was still happy enough at my duties.  I enjoyed my studies and my dreams were often of sailing ships and pirate battles.  I made friends at the weapons depot.  They weren’t true friends like my brothers, but we kept