The Return: The Darwin's World Series, Book 4 by Jack L Knapp

Author:Jack L Knapp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Mesk began his search by asking Central to compare all transplant files and display any similarities. The result was a flood of data, so much of it that even with his chip-aided memory he found the data incomprehensible.

Was that Central’s intention? He decided it didn’t matter. There was another way.

Central hadn’t asked questions when he ordered the three display screens. Now, for the first time in his life, Mesk accessed Central’s files directly. The screens showed personnel records, each different, and waiting in the background were others. By switching back and forth between three screens, Mesk compared the profiles Central had compiled for each person who had been rejuvenated. The process started slowly, then picked up speed as he realized that each file followed the same protocol in how the information was displayed. Physical attributes were meaningless, so Mesk ignored them, concentrating instead on psychological information and history. He soon found a pattern.

All the selectees had lived lives that were similar in certain ways, similar in fact to Matt’s history. Not all had been soldiers; some had been hunting guides, others prospectors. Some had been scientists. Several had been archaeologists, others biologists or anthropologists. All had spent considerable time alone, and often their work had taken them away from civilization. If there was a single factor common to all of them, they had at one time or another demonstrated a considerable amount of self-reliance.

Mesk left the files in place while he went for a walk. As usual, the shaded path he followed was deserted. He stopped at one of the many benches and sat down while he thought.

Who had made the original selections?

Mesk had worked from a list of possible candidates, and as soon as he’d chosen one Central had taken over. The individual had then been brought to Prime and medical procedures begun. Mesk had made another selection a few days later, and another after that. As a result, he always had several transplants working their way through the system at the same time, each at a slightly different stage of preparation. Mesk had been there for each transplant’s first awakening and he followed each candidate’s progress through the various steps until they were finally transplanted, but in each case he forced himself to remain detached. The knowledge was never far from his mind: some of the men and women would die within the first day, more within the first week, and others within the first month. Those who survived a month would probably survive long enough to reproduce.

Statistically, about half of Mesk’s transplants would live. Even self-reliance only went so far; a willingness to band together with others made a huge difference in survival rates. Central’s files contained no mention of socializing with others, but clearly that was also a survival trait.

But who had amassed the original list that Mesk had worked from?

“Central.”

<Waiting, Mesk.>

“Query. Origin of list of transplant candidates.”

<Query acknowledged. List generated by pairs of selectors sent into the past.>

“Query. How many selection pairs?”

<Query acknowledged. Six hundred forty seven selection pairs were sent into the past.

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