The Farm Chapter 3A

This was actually gonna be in chapter 4, but as I wrote it, it was plain that it really needed to be in chapter 3 for the set up. So the last part of Chapter III!

***** 

The computer was old. Hank took the casing apart and frowned. Not a lot of dust, which was good, but it was old, and he didn’t know if the hard drive still worked. If the drive was fucked, then the whole thing was fucked.

That presumes there’s a way to power it. Hank checked around and followed the power cord to an odd outlet on the wall.

Not part of the house. Something was added later. But the line… Hank looked up and tracked it to where it went through the wall. He frowned. Is it in a closet? Batteries? Hank left the room with the computer and walked to the side where the wire had vanished. There was no door there, but… he walked down to the next door and stuck his head in. An empty closet but…

It’s smaller than it should be.

Okay.

Hank started running his hands over the wall, and… There. There was a seam. He ran his fingers over to the far side and touched the cleverly disguised hinges.

“Right, so this side is where the hinges are, and…” Hank touched the other side, running his fingers over it. There wasn’t a latch or a handle.

But…

There was a little plate, and when Hank pushed down on it, it clicked, and suddenly the door sank back into the wall.

Hank frowned, then pushed it to the side, and it slid into a recess.

“Sliding door, smart.” I wonder if it was to hide this, and if so why… He looked inside the little chamber. There was… Okay, there was some complex shit that Hank didn’t understand, but there was also a little booklet. Someone left a friendly manual.

“My thermocouple systems…” Hank read it and chuckled. There were solar panels on the ceiling for this unit, but he also used a thermocouple battery. Right now it was generating energy because of the temperature difference. “You are one mad scientist,” he murmured.

There was a little switch to link the batteries to the cable. There was also a little map of small outlets they’d missed, leading to LED lights in the rooms. Not super bright, but not dark.

Huh. Wonder why he didn’t go for more power. Maybe he didn’t want to rewire the house? If Melissa wanted to sell this place, she was gonna have to do that. Still… Hank flipped the switch, and several lights came up green. Outside in the room a cheery light blazed. Hank shook his head. A set of little readouts on the wall informed him that right now, they were using less energy than the thermocouple was generating. Well, we don’t have to worry about running out of power.

Leaving the room Hank went back to the computer room and, staring at the machine for a moment, nodded and then flipped the power switch.

Here we go.

Moments later, the screen came on, proving that the computer…worked. Hank stared at the introduction.

Windows 3.1, what the hell is that? Still, the interface was understandable. There were folders and, under them, labels.

House plans… Hank opened it to see maps. The house was labeled, and behind it, there was another structure, the barn.

Haven’t been in the barn yet. But that would wait. Hank clicked those images closed.

Now, there were other files. Mostly payments, plans…

“Huh, he was gonna buy a nightclub? That’s kinda odd.”

And then there was a file: Aphrodite’s seeds.

“Right, time to find out about the tree.” Hank clicked on it. Moments later, a few lines of text came up. “Really? That’s it?”

Better than nothing.

“The seeds are my gift to man, but remember, every herd needs a bull.”

Then, there were notes about the growing conditions, talking about the extraordinary speed the fruit grew in and how healthy it was.

“But beware, you’ll be eating—and changing— a lot.”

That was it. Nothing more.

Great. Hank shook his head. He should—

“Hank?” Alicia poked her head in the door.

“Yeah?”

“Dinner’s ready. Also, Melissa wants to try the fruit.”

Okay, he says it’s healthy. Why the hell not?

“Fine.”

Hank turned the computer off and left the room.