the bottleneck years

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 21 Table of Contents Chapter 23 Chapter 22 Vancouver, November 20, 2055 Apparently being in ConSec means never having to wait for a plane. Carman walked me through a gate and out onto the tarmac. No body scanners, no sniffer bots, no security check of any sort as far as I could see. There were all of five people on the plane. Nobody spoke until we were in the air and then sparingly. I really did not know what to expect. Why would Carman drag me all the way to Vancouver? What was going through his mind? What did he mean by "a body that shouldn…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 20 Table of Contents Chapter 22 Chapter 21 At a sidewalk cafe, November 19, 2055 In North America, privacy is a thing of the past. How often we hear that! Wherever you go, newseyes operated by various government agencies or private corporations flit about recording every sight and sound to be analyzed by computer. Electronic communication is routinely monitored. Stationary cameras are everywhere. Microbugs make the detection of surveillance almost impossible. Newseyes put it in your face. When someone is watching over your shoulder, you feel…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 19 Table of Contents Chapter 21 Chapter 20 An Awkward Homecoming, November 17, 2055 Adelle was right. I did have difficulty getting back through Customs. The time stretched on. After five hours, an iris scan and multiple DNA tests, not to mention extensive questioning by airport security, Border Control and ConSec, I was released. Olivia was waiting for me. She was sitting in the lounge reading the news on a padd facing away from me. I walked up beside and behind her and nuzzled her neck. She spun around and gave me a big kiss. "I thought…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 18 Table of Contents Chapter 20 Chapter 19 Rio Triste, October 22, 2055 Fifteen scientists formed the Mandate group and one staff person, a terrifyingly severe Dutch woman who managed schedules and bills. She never said more than two words to me the whole time I was there. The locals were a mixture of Spanish descendants, blacks and natives in various proportions. Most of them seemed to think we were a bunch of arrogant, ignorant bastards useful only as victims. They paid attention to us only because we had money. The ecologist literally…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 17 Table of Contents Chapter 19 Chapter 18 Amazon, Sept. 29, 2055 Have you ever wondered what is the logic of your life? Sometimes I feel like a piece of flotsam bouncing on the waves of a river whose depth and currents I cannot fathom, whose path I do not know, whose destination, short of the ocean, is a mystery. This feeling caught me as I contemplated Olivia. It was equally true of the happy accident that I just happened to notice the odd red-green plant years before when Doc Y and I were on a sampling tour in the B.C. interior. I got my…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 16 Table of Contents Chapter 18 Chapter 17 Microbugs, Sept. 25, 2055 A couple of ConSec guys appeared and we climbed back into the paddywagon for the ride home. We didn't talk. As I entered the kitchen, I was enveloped in a wave of unreality. It all seemed so fantastic. How are you supposed to feel when you are plucked out of your daily life, threatened, spun in the air, examined and then plunked back down to carry on? Olivia and I sat at the kitchen table sipping coffee. "Can I see it?" She held her hand out. When I gave her Carman's…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 15 Table of Contents Chapter 17 Chapter 16 Carman, Sept. 25, 2055 Matt had been on the west coast for two months. Jon was in Ottawa with the Senator. I was happy with Olivia. Our life was never dull. Doc Y, as Jim Yablonski was affectionately known around campus, and I were collaborating on a new paper on photosynthesis. Except for dad's death, which was a shock, my life was unfolding more or less as I thought it should. Then I met Carman. I had got up early one Saturday morning, as I sometimes do when I'm chewing on a problem. I appreciate…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 14 Table of Contents Chapter 16 Chapter 15 The Great Work, September 7, 2055 In the top centre drawer of the big desk in dad's library, I found an unmarked envelope containing this document. The Great Work, March 2040 My time is getting short and I don't know what more I can do. I am getting old and I don't have time for bullshit. I don't want for anything. There is no profit -- economic, moral or spiritual -- in recording my thoughts, yet I persist. I have raised the boys as best I could since Joan died. They are good, strong lads. I only…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 13 Table of Contents Chapter 15 Chapter 14 The Clone Document, September 7, 2055 I was in the University library when a short innocuous looking fellow approached my carousel. "Are you Luc Pascal Fontaine, son of the late Robert Fontaine?" I looked at him warily, curious what he was about. "Yes." "I have a package for you." He lifted his briefcase, putting it on top of my books and papers. "I need a signature." "Fine," I said. He snapped open his case, removing a clipboard and a heavy manila envelope. "If I can just get you to sign for receipt…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 12 Table of Contents Chapter 14 Chapter 13 Olivia, August 30, 2055 All of a sudden I had a whole lot of woman on my hands. It was a whole new ballgame. Olivia was smart, sexy and a lot of fun. I stayed at her suite the first night and the next we spent at mine. Matt and Jon just laughed when I explained why I had stood them up. Jon went back to Ottawa. The Senate was not in session, but the Senator had research and PR jobs lined up to keep him busy for a month. A week later, Matt came around to say goodbye. He was heading to the coast. "I'm…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 11 Table of Contents Chapter 13 Chapter 12 The Reception, July 23, 2055 Mom and Dad's old friends, university people, and a gaggle of 32nd cousins chattered and whispered at tables throughout the reception hall. Matt and Jon had disappeared. I was doing my best to represent the family. Everybody wanted to express their condolences in person. It was long and drawn out. People I hadn't seen for years kept coming up to me to commiserate and chat. All at once Jon was standing behind me. "It is decided," he said. "What's that?" "Matt's going to…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 10 Table of Contents Chapter 12 Chapter 11 The Funeral, July 23, 2055 I don't remember my mother. We had recordings of her singing, that is all. She died when we were young and dad never remarried. He raised us alone. He was a grumpy old ecologist with three rambunctious boys. All of his friends were doctors or professors. It made for a strange and daunting home environment. As soon as we were old enough, he began dragging us up north on his scientific expeditions. Dad was a hard sonofabitch. His father had died when he was young and he had…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 9 Table of Contents Chapter 11 Chapter 10 Robert Fontaine, July 18, 2055 I was heading for the library when I got a phone call from Bessie Waters, a neighbour who visited with dad occasionally. She was worried. "I knocked on the door and there was no answer," she said. "I think you should check on him." I was supposed to give a lecture late that afternoon. I called my old faculty advisor, Dr. Yablonski, to arrange a substitute and headed home. Bessie was not around. The kitchen was as I had left it. The house was dark and quiet. For a second…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 8 Table of Contents Chapter 10 Chapter 9 Henry, June 10, 2055 When Thursday rolled around, I rode my bike over to Fontaine Enterprises on Woodward. I arrived about a quarter to four. Matt and I sat in his office drinking coffee which wasn't ersatz. The room was bipolar; half administration, half draughting room. Rolls of paper and plans littered a work table at one end. A coffee machine sat on a counter beside a sink which marked the functional division of the room. Jon arrived at four on the nose and Matt pulled out another mug. We waited…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 7 Table of Contents Chapter 9 Chapter 8 Jacy, June 7, 2055 I spent a couple of fruitless hours in the laboratory reading the absorption spectra of an extremeophile bacteria, then headed home. After supper, dad went to bed early. I cleaned up and retreated to the library. As I was sitting down, my eye happened to fall on an old paper magazine whose cover blared "Jacy Strikes" over a picture of a devastated city. The year that Hypercane Jacy destroyed Houston, America got religion about global warming. A strong Category 5 hurricane, almost 2,…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 6 Table of Contents Chapter 8 Chapter 7 Teaser, June 4, 2055 A couple of weeks later, I received a curious invitation. It was courier delivered snail mail, a photocopy of a letter of inquiry from some guy to a toy company, which read: Dear Customer Service, I am a happily married engineer with a 4 year old daughter, Rena. Recently as I was home sick, I sent the babysitter home for the day. You can imagine my considerable alarm when I walked into the front room and found my little angel cutting up the hand of her toy doll. And I am sure you…

The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 5 Table of Contents Chapter 7 Chapter 6 The Great Hunger, May 19, 2055 I took my bike to university the next day so I could go grocery shopping on the way home. After two classes in the afternoon, the last one spent trying to fire some enthusiasm for the computational beauty of genetics in a dozen second years when the only thing on their minds was the end of term exams, I was more than ready to leave. At the co-op store, an unhappy knot of customers clustered around the profile tills. The iris scanners were offline. The profile economy was a…

The Bottleneck Years Chapter 4 Table of Contents Chapter 6 by H.E. Taylor Chapter 5 FabNet, May 18, 2055 I sat at the window watching Matt roll away in his electric chariot. When he was gone, I stared at the lake musing how different we were. We were identical and yet we weren't. Matt definitely had a unique way of looking at things. It started when he was a teenager. He picked up a second hand 3-D printer for next to nothing at a yard sale. 3-D printers, or fabs, short for fabricators, were capable of building any desired object layer by layer out of plastic or ceramic goop. "They're…

The Bottleneck Years Chapter 3 Table of Contents Chapter 5 by H.E. Taylor Chapter 4 Matt, May 18. 2055 When I got home from CCU, Matt was over talking to dad. We sat around the kitchen table catching up. Jon had got the job with the Senator. Matt was predictably down on politicians. After a while Dad got visibly tired. "I'm sorry boys, but my getup-and-go got up and went." He pushed himself to his feet and headed slowly down the hall to the bedroom. Matt watched him go and asked sotto voce, "Does he do that often?" "What's that?" "Just conk out like that. It's only seven thirty." I…

The Bottleneck Years Chapter 2 Table of Contents Chapter 4 by H.E. Taylor Chapter 3 Electronic Democracy, May 11, 2055 As I walked to CCU, I thought about what Jon was getting into. It was just like him to breeze in, drop a zinger and split before anyone could reply sensibly. When I was growing up, I instinctively avoided politics. I knew the broad outline of our political history, only because it was unavoidable. A lot of what had happened in North America revolved around energy. Dad lived through the oil crunch and sometimes he tried to explain to us what life was like before. He…