Chapter 18: Lysoid Stool

Lysoid Stool was a climate-controlled town, and they were in Tristan's cabin. From what Casey could gather, there were six climate-controlled towns, which they called Stools. Each member of the Taskforce was allocated a residence in one of them. Tristan was allocated Lysoid Stool.

After better understanding the Taskforce members and weighing their naivety and desire to have her do the work, she grew in confidence. Raising her voice slightly, she said, "Okay, everyone. If you can help me understand how things work, I can start the investigation and hopefully find a solution. I already have some ideas, but I don't know enough to decide if they are in the right direction."

Tristan volunteered to give her a tour of the Lysoid Stool, saying, "Most of the Stools are structured the same; they are covered by domes several hundred kilometres in circumference, how high and wide depends on the crop they grow and how many commoners are required to run the Stool. My house sits at the entrance; on one side of my property is the guard house, and on the other is the entrance to the underground tunnel leading to the manufacturing plant."

"Do you manage this community and the crops?" Casey asked in surprise

"I have managers, but I can pretty much see everything from the War Room on the top floor of this cabin," Tristan responded. "The setup is the same at all Stools; only the size, crop, and type of commoners vary."

"Type of commoners, what does that mean?" she asked with concern.

Looking at Casey as if she were stupid, Kalan responded, "Different crops require different skill sets, and workers who can handle the conditions required to manage that particular crop."

As Casey wanted to gain as much information as possible, she parked her questions and concerns. "Okay, that makes sense," she responded with the most convincing tone she could muster.

"I haven't seen that type of War Room before. Tristan can you show me?" she asked

"Sure, follow me," he responded. Without hesitation, he turned and walked towards the staircase, which started to move as soon as he was within a few feet. She quickly joined him and could see he pressed three on the rail. Once they were on the stairs, it adjusted and took them directly to the third floor.

As they exited the staircase, they were greeted by a human-robot similar to the ones at the CMP. Its name was Closy. Tristan instructed Closy to give Casey a rundown of the room. Initially, there appeared to be 360-degree windows, but as Closy started to talk, the windows turned into transparent screens covered with information, and the content on the windows frame the outside.

Closy walked Casey through each window, which was a map of the specific area viewed through that window section. So, the window contained substantial amounts of data about what you were looking at through that view.

The data contained family names written over specific houses in the view, so she could see exactly where families like the Smiths lived. It also highlighted the crops, allowing her to see how healthy they were and their productivity levels, from planting to despatch.

Most of the windows looked like this until she reached the window looking out at the guard station, which had the names of the guards on duty and the names of people who had passed through the gates that day.

Then, the window facing the entrance to the underground tunnel showed quantities of what was going into the tunnel and a whole lot of other data.

Casey tried to remain calm, as if this was something she expected to see, trying to memorise as much as possible. While Closy was giving Casey the rundown, Tristan seemed distracted. When Casey spoke to him, he barely looked at her.

Casey said to Tristan, "This looks like a lot of work for you."

Tristan’s response was blasé, "It pretty much manages itself; if something needs my attention, Closy will let me know, but that is pretty rare."

"But what about the problem with the lysoid supply? Isn't that something that needs to be fixed," she asked

"Well, I have you now to do that," he said with a sly smile. I'm going back downstairs; Closy can take you on a tour of the Stool; after that, come and see me and tell me what you think we need to do."

Casey could already see from the data on the windows which areas were unproductive and was keen to see that area from the ground. 

As soon as she left the house, she felt the temperature change. Strangely, there was no sunshine, but it was bright and warm, with no breeze.

They were in an open-roofed vehicle, and Closy asked Casey if she would like to fly over the Stool or drive through it. She responded quickly, “Through it, I’d like to talk to some of the people.”

“That is unusual,” said Closey, “but if that is what you want, okay.”

“Why is it unusual?” she asked, “Well, nobody from the big house speaks to the commoners.”

She said mainly to herself, “Maybe that is why they don’t know how to fix the problem.” Closy seemed to know there was no need to respond.

From the War Room, Casey could see that the crops were grown in streams. There were rows and rows of them. The water must come from underwater wells, as there was no sign of a lake or larger water source.

At the start of the tour, she was mesmerised by the beauty. Lysoid transitioned from blue to eventually red as it matured and was ready to harvest, so she felt like they were driving within a rainbow.

After they had been driving for a while, she noticed a bunch of children playing in one of the streams amongst the crops and asked Closy to stop.

As she got out of the vehicle, the children stopped playing and looked at her. Before she could get close, they ran off. She called out for them to stop, but they kept running and were quickly out of sight.

She turned to Closy and asked, “why did they run away,”

“Why you’re from the big house,” was Closy’s response, as if it was supposed to mean something to her.

“Take me to the people who work on the crop with the lowest productivity,” she instructed.

It only took about 15 minutes. Once they arrived, Closy parked in front of a large shed. As they approached, she could see people outside, but by the time they stopped, no one was in sight, and the shed's door was closed.

Casey exited the vehicle and approached the door, saying, “Hello. I’m Casey. I’m here to find out how I can help you.”

She could hear some murmuring behind the door and shuffling of feet. “I would really appreciate some of your time,

She tried the door handle, and with a quick glance back at Closy, who started to get out of the vehicle, she walked into the shed.

She was surprised to see about twenty people grouped together, and they all looked shocked when she appeared.

“Hello,” she said, careful to add, “My name is Casey, and I work on the chemical pouches for the seawater membranes. " She kept going, “and we are short on lysoid, so I thought I would come and help you with a solution.”

Nobody moved for a few minutes, then a tall girl stepped forward, “we don’t need help, you can go.”

“I can’t go without a solution, as my community relies heavily on the chemical pouches I produce for water, and I don’t want to let them down.” She said

“what community,” the girl asked

“outside old Washington DC.” She responded

The girl looked around, then back at Casey, “we’ve never had anyone come to help us before,”

Then Closy entered, and they all took a step back. “Casey we should go,” Closy said.

“No, Closy. I’m fine. I’ll be back shortly. Please go wait outside,” she said.

Once Closy left, the girl came forward again, “How are you going to help us.”

“I’m not sure yet. I don’t know what the problem is. Maybe if you could help me understand why the lysoid production has slowed, we can work it out together, " she said, hoping.

“Well, I guess we’ve got nothing to lose. Henry, take Casey to stream 44 so she can see for herself what’s happened,” said the girl.

She followed Henry out the door, and he started walking. " How far is it?” she asked. "About 10 kilometres south." he said

“Closy will drive us,” she said.

“Really,” Henry replied with an excitement she hadn’t seen that day. Henry explained that the only vehicle anyone outside the big house had been in before were the trailers to transport the crop.

The section Henry took Casey to was very different from what she had been seeing. Only dead leaves were floating in the water, which was a strange orange colour. All of the streams in that area were the same.

As she took samples, Closy said, “Casey, we must hurry. It will start soon, and if you take any longer, we’ll get caught.”

Casey wasn’t clear what this meant, but Henry said he had to go and started to run off; she yelled for him to wait as she had lots more questions, but he just yelled back, I need to get back

Closy kept hurrying her up, so she collected what she could and hopped back into the vehicle. She wanted to ask so many more questions, but Closy headed straight for the big house. Just as they got out of the vehicle, rain started falling. But as she tasted what landed on her lips, she realised it wasn’t just water; it had some form of chemical in it

As she got inside, Tristan was waiting for her, “what took you so long,” he was surprised when she told him about her conversations; it wasn’t the content he was surprised about. It was the fact she spoke to people outside of the house.

He shook his head and responded, “That’s weird, but you do what you have to; I need to go; I’ll see you tomorrow.” And before she could respond, he had gone.

So much had happened that day that she decided it was time for her to leave, so she entered the home coordinates and left the cabin.