The Leviathan Project

Prologue: The Doctors

Happy Times Bar, Des Moines, Iowa. December, 2245.

"Gimme Another," the man at the bar said.

"Sir, I think you have had quite enough, this would be your twenty-third drink tonight," the bartender responded incredulously."

The man leaned in close. "You...... young man........... you have.............. no idea what.......... i.......... have been though....... Now GIVE ME ANOTHER!"

"All right, but after this I am cutting you off." The bartender poured the man another drink.

"Thank ye lad," was his Only response.

At this point, another man approached him. "Dr. Gerald Wade?" He asked, in a heavy English accent.

"Yeah, that's me, whaddya want?" he responded, his voice heavily slurred."

"What I want," said the British man, "is to give you a second chance."

"Second chance at what? Saving my wife? It is not possible. Her disease is terminal. I tried millions of different ways to save here. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE!"

"Not for her maybe, but you could save anyone else who gets her same disease. You could save people to honor your wife's memory."

"IT is polio! There is no cure!"

"There is no conventional cure. But I have devised a solution which may not only solve the problem not only polio, but any future disease."

"All right i am listening."

"I want to create a new type of life, one that is so efficient and so advanced that it can discover a new solution to any problem we have in a trillionth of the time it takes us."

"AI?" Would the UN approve?"

"They already have. We have public support from them and private support from another anonymous backer."

"..............All right. I may regret this when I am sober but I am in."

"Brilliant. Take this datapad. The coordinates there will lead you to our base. And my name is Wells by the way, Dr. Herman Wells. Welcome Aboard Dr. Wade."