Core Beliefs - Chapter 48 - Clean Up Crew

Core Beliefs – Chapter 48 - Clean Up Crew.

The “Fantastic Four” continued to develop new technology. The breakthroughs seemed to never end, as one discovery led to a plethora of others.

Surprisingly, Joe had provided the first lead for the practical application of the new technology.

A company specializing in hazardous waste cleanup and site remediation had consulted his law firm. They were falling behind schedule on a project and were threatened with large, liquidated damages. They asked Joe to see if there was any language in the contract to get out of the penalties; unfortunately, there wasn’t.

Joe called Matt. It seemed the disposal company had lucrative contracts that included room for substantial profit if the project could be completed on time. Chris jokingly suggested that they could turn the hazardous material into gold.

Matt and Joe starred at Chris and Suchet.

“Are you serious?” Joe asked.

“It is relative to the available mass, but yes, we could,” Suchet said.

Matt smiled and thought about the possibilities.

Joe interrupted Matt’s musings, “Gold is a material that is able to be brokered and sold, but very large quantities would draw attention.”

“Is there a reason not to charge for the service?” Matt asked.

After a short but focused discussion, they decided charging for the disposal would probably raise the fewest questions.

“We will offer the disposal company a fair cost,” Matt said. “We will dispose of the hazardous material, possibly convert some of it to something of value, then take our time selling it.

“Considering they get their mess cleaned up and avoid the penalties, I think they’ll be happy.”

Chris and Suchet asked about the volume of material. Joe said he would find out.

“We need a separate site away from the Silo,” Matt said.

They broke the meeting, each with assignments.

***

Ling noticed that Matt appeared to be in the best health ever. His energy level always ran high, his mind ever sharp, and she could tell that he soaked up knowledge as fast as it was presented. His muscle tone and physical strength, though not extraordinary, appeared better than that of a forty-year-old. Even his hair was growing in sandy brown.

“Matt,” she asked as they ate lunch, “do you realize you are in better shape than I’ve ever seen you?”

“I know,” he replied. “I feel really good but haven’t dwelled on it.”

“I have a hunch,” Ling said. “Would you be willing to let me take some blood and tissue samples for testing?”

“Sure, for you, anything.”

Ling arranged for Matt to come by the Neurology center, and she pulled the samples herself. There were a few cultures that needed to be run, but even before they were complete, Ling had made an astounding discovery.

As she viewed cells through a high-powered electron microscope, she saw cells in the process of self-repair. She pulled several cell sections, prepared another culture, and sent them to Myoplex to have the DNA analyzed.

It took two days before all the results were returned. As Ling sat in her office reviewing them, she realized that the regenerative DNA had not stopped in Matt’s brain. It had spread to every tissue in his body.

Ling compared the information to the data taken when the regenerative DNA was originally implanted. The facts were conclusive. Matt’s body was healing, cleaning, and renewing itself in a way that would keep him well, healthy, and vibrantly alive for years beyond the norm. She wondered how long this phenomenon could be sustained.

That evening they went to dinner, nothing fancy, just a quiet restaurant.

While waiting for their entrees, Ling asked, “Matthew, do you still actively look through your body, like you did following the accident?”

“I used to every night, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything that needed attention.”

“My dear Matthew, I think from what I’ve learned, only if you have an accident or some other outside physical injury will you need to worry. The truth is, my love, that the regenerative DNA has spread through your entire body, and you are restoring yourself to health on a perpetual basis.”

Matt thoughtfully considered what she had said.

“Matt, I have no forecast for how long you might live, but I do know that as things are, it will be for many years.”

“Ling, I don’t want to live forever. I don’t want to live a day longer than I can be with you.”

“Matthew,” she tenderly touched her finger to his cheek, “hopefully, it will be a long time before that issue is faced, and who knows what might be discovered by then.”

They were quiet during the rest of dinner.

On the way home, Matt asked, “Are you still willing to have a baby?”

Ling squeezed his hand and spoke to his head and heart, “More now than ever. I do love you so much.”

It took three months, but Ling was pregnant. She glowed when she wasn’t fighting morning sickness. Matt was ecstatic, and everyone knew.

***

Back in Wichita, Chris and Suchet continually fed off each other’s expertise, and in return, they each increased their knowledge and abilities.

They had found a suitable site for the hazardous waste disposal, an abandoned dump about twenty miles from the Silo. Joe arranged to purchase it, and they equipped it with material moving equipment. Elvin helped operate the machines.

They modified a beam generator and renamed it a converter. Chris had equipped it with its own antimatter power supply. They did trial runs by converting the debris in the dump to nickel, shaping it into a containment area for the hazardous materials they would be processing.

Chris and Suchet made dozens of modifications to the beam unit to properly form the floor and walls of the area. Nickel had the best resistant numbers for the materials they would be processing, and when the job was done, they could either repurpose the material or scrap it.

Joe negotiated the fee with the disposal company, and everything was set to go. They mounted the conversion equipment in a twenty-four-foot, heavy-duty box truck, letting them drive it to the Silo and secure it in the building when not in use.

Suchet had made the antimatter power module tamper-proof. If anyone tried to penetrate the module, the entire interior would disappear, leaving a void and no sign of the technology. They encased the entire power module in a polycarbonate sarcophagus with a minimum thickness of two feet. Chris had redesigned the rectifiers and converters to control the voltage more efficiently.

The conversion of the hazardous waste was a straightforward process, first converting the hazardous material to nitrogen, then discharging the gas into the air through fans in the truck’s roof.

They felt they could handle two truckloads a shift and worked at night, using night vision goggles.

The loads arrived, and the process proceeded smoothly. This soil had been tainted with battery acid and mercury. Hazmat suits were necessary. Using the bulldozer and a front-end loader, they maneuvered piles of the material into a tented enclosure over the containment area, where the primary beam would convert it to nitrogen. The fans would draw the gas into the box on the truck and jet it vertically into the night air. Suchet had positioned air monitoring sensors about the area. These checked oxygen levels and also monitored for noxious gases that might come from the hazardous waste.

Based on the information the disposal firm had provided, they would need about three weeks to handle all the material.

The project finished with only a few hiccups. Suchet had them skim the top layer off the nickel containment plating to make sure they had cleansed all residual traces of the hazardous materials and had the disposal company run a water and soil test of the area to verify that no contaminants remained.

They switched up on the last run and produced one hundred and eighty-seven pounds of gold. Almost two million dollars’ worth.

Joe would move the gold slowly through multiple brokers. They would anonymously donate the proceeds to charities. Nothing would show up on corporate books.

The disposal company picked up other projects, including hazardous chemicals and water poisoned by chemical runoff.

Joe found it interesting that they had minimum paperwork to handle. It seemed the legit disposal company knew precisely how to document that the materials had been properly disposed of.

***

From the time Ling had apprised Matt of how his body was healing and maintaining itself, he’d been formulating an idea, spending many hours in St Louis, sequestered with Clarence Chambers and Melissa Kyle, researching regenerative DNA, absorbing every scrap of information he could find.

He visualized amazing possibilities and configured hundreds of experiments to see if the reality matched his hopes.

DNA was taken from people’s hair, including Ling’s. They grew tissue samples. Painstakingly, they defined the DNA into its sub-structures and composed a master molecule. The idea Matt had was to create an incomplete DNA molecule that would bind to the original molecule in each cell, where it would begin a process of renewal within each cell. It took over a thousand attempts before they achieved promising results. The tissue samples were constantly renewing themselves and yet retaining their original characteristics. Therefore, a kidney grown from regenerative DNA would always be a kidney, and the DNA would never seek to spread to other organs.

Matt, Clarence, and Melissa stared at the data displayed on a wide-screen monitor in Melissa’s sterile bio-research lab.

“Well, I think we’ve created the fountain of youth,” Clarence glanced at Matt and Melissa.

“Have we just changed mankind forever?” Melissa was hit with the realization of the potential of their work.

“No,” Matt said, “we have found a way to change mankind, but I believe that mankind is not yet ready. In reality, we are in extreme danger. Let’s keep this between us until we have a plan for bringing it to the world. After all, we know the lab results but haven’t applied them to a whole and living person.”

They nodded. Matt noted that there was no fear or apprehension, just acknowledgment of the facts.