by Francis Tint
“Quick”, Zach advised through the communication device attached to Rachael. “If we could get him to my lab in time to raise his core temperature, we might be able to save him.” Zach made the suggestion after he had witnessed Blake pulling the trigger and turning their hallucinatory friend to an ice statue.
While paying great attention to keep Tylor intact, they quickly loaded him in the car and drove as fast as possible to Zach’s place. When they arrived, Zach had already prepared a bed with heating pads, in an effort to thaw Tylor and rescue him from hypothermia.
“It’s a good thing your cryogenic solution doesn’t penetrate deep,” Zach said. “Hopefully only the surface is frozen.”
“Do you know what caused his hallucination?” asked Corey.
“Yeah. I found a chip on his foot. It must be messing with his brain. The same tech from the device you collected from that abandoned warehouse.”
“How’s he doing?” asked Rachael, with tears in her eyes.
“The readings have stabilized, but he’s still unconscious,” answered Zach. “I’ll closely monitor him. We’ll make sure he comes back to us.”
“I’m sorry Rachael,” Blake apologized. “I’m sorry I shot him.”
“It’s not your fault,” she replied.
“You had no choice, Blake,” Julia added. “Ty was going to shoot you. Why would someone do that to him?”
“Well,” Zach speculated, “we’ve been trying to uncover someone’s hidden agenda to build a super army. We don’t know who they are. But I guess, they found out who we are.”
“Damn it,” Julia cursed. “So what now? Just let them hunt us down?”
“We haven’t made any progress with the encrypted folder,” Zach stated. “We have no leads whatsoever.”
“I would like to share something that might help,” Blake said. She explained to the group how Dr. Po might be her biological dad. The doctor had once been working very closely with Corey’s mom, Sue Zorik. They had both been academics from Beryl University. Their research had mostly focused on quantum superposition and MWI.
“Any mention of a Synchronizer?” Zach asked.
Blake shook her head. “But there’s repeated mention of isotopes. I couldn’t quite figure out what they’re trying to say.” She pulled out some articles with highlighted paragraphs.
Rachael perused the passages and said, “I think they’re trying to say that atoms do simultaneously exist in multiple dimensions, but the isotopic makeup would likely be different.”
“That doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Julia.
“If there are multiple universes, then it’s likely that the naturally-occurring isotopes in each would be different,” Rachael elaborated. “We know that 99% of the carbon atoms found in nature on this Earth is the carbon-12 isotope. They conjectured that in another universe, on another Earth, the most commonly found carbon atom would be a different isotope.”
“Ok, so whoever’s actively changing the isotopic makeup might not actually be trying to create a super army,” deduced Zach.
“Yeah, it sounds like they’re trying to make us into another universe,” Julia contemplated.
“Remember the mass loss in your explosion chamber? What if they're trying to change the isotopic makeup to create some sort of conduit to travel to another universe,” Blake speculated.
“I suppose there’s a slight chance,” concluded Rachael. “Is there any other mention of changing isotopic makeup or alternate universe in the articles?”
“Nothing on changing isotopic makeup,” Blake replied. “But they spoke more about a massive multi-dimensional imbalance detected about twenty-five years ago, and they were working on reinstating that balance. I couldn’t find much detail in the published articles.”
“But maybe we can find something from their unpublished research,” Julia added.
“My thoughts exactly. I wonder if we can find out more from where Dr. Po lived or conducted his private research,” Blake concurred.
They all instinctively turned to Zach. “Address of missing scientist coming right up,” he announced.
The group arrived at Dr. Po’s home. “I can’t really believe we’re breaking and entering again,” Rachael observed.
“Technically, this could be Blake’s dad’s place,” Julia argued. “It’s not illegal for a daughter to visit her dad, bringing all her friends along.”
“I guess it’s also perfectly normal to visit your dad’s place by picking the lock,” Zach added as Corey inserted a paper clip into the keyhole.
Not even a minute had passed, the door unlocked with a click. “Wow, that’s much faster than last time,” Rachael said, referring to the time when Tylor had tried to pick Corey’s lock.
They stepped in the house. There was a strange sense of homecoming. Incoherent flashes of memories suddenly appeared before her eyes. Or was she just imagining them?
Blake walked around Dr. Po’s place, wondering if she had really grown up there. She stepped into the kitchen and noticed a set of kid’s cutleries. Were they hers? Was this the table she had shared meals with her dad? Had they prepared food and cleaned up together?
She tried very hard to think back to her past, but nothing came to mind. It was as if there was this void in her childhood. The memories were somehow taken from her.
She walked down a hallway, and caught sight of a height chart on the wall, started from two years old, and stopped at six. Corey approached her and asked gently, “Is any of this ringing a bell?”
Blake shook her head. She wasn’t sure if those flashes had just been her being wishful.
“Hey, come over here,” Rachael yelled from the study. They followed Rachael’s voice and saw Zach on Dr. Po’s computer.
“Any luck on unpublished papers?” asked Blake.
“Not much. Only this lab notebook we found,” Julia replied and handed Blake the notebook.
“I’m trying to see if there’s anything on his computer,” Zach added, “but there’s not a lot of stuff.”
“Let me take a look,” requested Rachael. She invoked some more windows, and clicked open some folders.
Blake walked around Dr. Po’s study. By his desk, she picked up a photo frame of him and a girl. It was unmistakable. Although the girl had blue eyes, it was certainly Blake’s younger self. She had indeed lived there. “Dr. Po is my dad,” she spoke softly.
Corey heard her, and gave her a hug.
“How can I remember nothing of him? I don’t understand. You remember everything clearly: our time together at the lab, going to the foster system. Why can’t I remember any of it?”
“Maybe you were too young.”
“I should still have some impression of this house. I don’t remember living here at all. I don’t remember him at all.” Tears were coming out of her eyes.
“That’s not true. You said you’ve always felt very close to your dad, but it’s clear you don't have a strong connection with Mr. Lee. What you remember must be your tight bond with Dr. Po. You two were really close. Someone must’ve done something to block your memories. But they couldn’t erase your emotional attachments to your dad.”
Who? Who would do such a terrible thing?
“Damn it,” Rachael interrupted. “There’s this folder that looks useful, but it’s encrypted again.”
“At least we know whatever inside’s probably important,” concluded Zach.
Blake was still coming to terms about her true heritage. She felt her life slowly coming to pieces, torn apart by traitors: the overbearing know-it-all Victor, and the ones she had been calling her parents. She needed to get back in the game. She needed to hold onto what she did best: science.
She headed to her lab in the morning and spoke with Rachael. “Hey Rachael, could I borrow some of your time?”
“Sure. Is it an assignment from Victor?”
“No. I’m not really involved with whatever he’s doing. Before I took on this project, I was working on fine-tuning the temperature fl
uctuations in the incubation period to optimize production. I want to continue that.”
“Sounds like a promising idea. If it works, it will score you some points with the boss.”
“It’s not really about that. Of course some recognition would be nice, but I just want to concentrate on what I like.”
“Fair enough. Where do we start?”
“Let’s start with running a simulation of the bioreactor at normal processing parameters, and see what the production rate looks like.”
Rachael punched in some parameters on the computer. “Hmm… look at this point on the graph,” she pointed at her computer screen. “What do you think is causing the slowdown?”
“Maybe the culture has grown so much that it’s generating too much heat,” Blake speculated. “Do you think there’s a way to extract heat from the bioreactor?”
“We’re running a simulation, so anything’s possible. So far, it doesn’t seem like it’s improving too much.”
“Can we make it even colder, and maybe earlier?”
“Ok, let’s rerun this,” Rachael inputted some new figures. “Looks like it might work. But we are dangerously approaching the system limit.”
“We can’t just always work within the safe zone.”
“I like this new Blake. Let’s optimize this even further.”
The simulation flashed out a new graph. “This is great. I think we almost doubled the output!” said Blake.
“Only way to prove this is to run it on a live batch. But we should really monitor the process. It might become catastrophic.”
“Agreed. Let’s see if we can schedule some time with the bioreactor team.”
Two encrypted folders, and none of his decryption programs had worked. He should really get an upgrade, Zach thought, as he furiously tried out different algorithms. Regardless of what he tried, he was nonetheless still missing the decryption keys. What could they be?
Perhaps the folder name would give some clue. The one downloaded from Dr. Po’s computer was named EPDM. It probably did not stand for the ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber. Dr. Po’s research was on theoretical physics, not on polymer science. How about “every pointless direct message”? Maybe it’s just a folder of junk messages, highly encrypted? That’d be the cruelest joke if it did contain an endless list of meaningless texts after they had spent hours decrypting the folder.
Buried in deep thoughts, Zach felt a tap on his right shoulder. Startled, he jerked and turned to his right, but found no one. He decided he needed to re-caffeinate before all his five senses started to hallucinate. He started his espresso machine, and opened his fridge. He saw the leftover almond milk Corey had brought over last time and decided to try a new flavor.
“Ahh… this is disgusting. Who even likes this?” he said to no one in particular.
He set the cup aside and prepared himself a fresh one, this time with regular bovine milk. As he poured the milk into his new cup of espresso, he noticed the one with the disgusting almond milk had gone missing.
“You’re right. This is indeed disgusting,” a voice emerged behind him.
Zach turned around and dropped the cup he’s holding at the sight of a long-unseen face. “Dyl? What are you… how do you get here?”
“I’m doing fine. Long time no see. Thanks for asking.”
Zach’s mouth opened wide but no words came out. Dylan filled in the silence, “Shocked to see me after you left me for dead, traitor?”
“We didn’t mean to leave you for dead. We had to get out. They left us with no choice. I didn’t betray you!”
“You never even returned to check if I’m alright after that day! Do you have any idea what they did to me?”
“Corey said it’d be too dangerous.”
“Right, it’s all Corey. You knew him for one minute, and then you decided to leave your only friend behind and flee.”
“We never meant to leave you behind. We knew they were hunting us so we had to keep a low profile. I wanted to go back for you, but with my leg, I’d just get caught once I showed my face.” Zach approached his old-time friend. “I’m glad that you’re safe now. How did you get out?”
Dylan pursed his lips and took a deep breath. “I escaped with some others a few months after,” he explained as he walked over to a chair. “Things got really bad after you and your friend pulled that little stunt. We were under surveillance twenty-four seven, with strict routines and close to zero social interactions.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I really am. I wish it could’ve been different.”
“We were recruited to engage in some secret missions, and some of us never came back. We got suspicious so we started digging. We found some really crazy stuff.”
“Like exploring an alternate universe?” asked Zach.
Dylan nodded. “There’s so much science offers that we should be thankful for: electricity, penicillin, vaccines. But there’s a line science should never cross. We shouldn’t be messing with the natural order.”
“That’s a little dramatic. Who’s to say we aren’t supposed to discover our neighbors from another dimension?”
“And create freaks like us as a result? This is not normal. It’s not natural.” Dylan clenched his fist and took a deep breath. “So some of us got together, escaped and made it our mission to stop them. Once and for all. This is why I’m here today. Let’s stop them together. We can really use your help. Zach, come join us.”
“‘Us’? Who’s this ‘us’?”
“We call ourselves the Typhon, sworn enemy of Hermes. Our goal is to stop evil corporations like them, and those born with special powers. We need to reclaim our earth and save our people.”
“What do you know about people born with special powers?”
“We know you’re close to some of them, not just Corey.”
So they knew about Blake, Zach thought. How much had they found out about them? How much more had they assumed? A terrible thought came to mind. “Do you guys have anything to do with what happened to Tylor?”
“It didn’t go down the way we planned.”
“What was the plan then, huh? Tylor’s still lying unconscious over there. If Blake did not react as quickly as she did, she’s probably dead by now. Is this what you call reclaiming the earth and saving people?”
“You only recently met them. Why do you trust them so much? Why are you helping them?”
“Because Corey trusts them. And Corey saved my life.”
“It’s all because of Corey.”
“It’s not just that. They are good people. We are trying to do the same thing. We’re trying to stop Hermes and whoever’s behind them.”
“People with secret powers are not innocent. They are a threat to our existence.”
“Tylor doesn’t have any secret powers. Why does he deserve to get hurt?”
“He doesn’t, but we can fix that. We can bring him back.”
“How? With what?”
“We took some supplies from Hermes. I’m sure they can help restart his system.”
“What supplies? The drug they put us on? How do you know for sure it’ll work?”
“I don’t, but it’s worth a shot. He’s probably suffering from some brain damage. And as you know, Hermes’s drug works to expand the brain’s potential.”
“Ok,” Zach pondered for a moment and put his hand out. “Do you have some with you? Let me think about it with the group.”
“But I need something in return, Zach.”
“What? Me? I’m not joining your sadistic cult.”
“We can train you. We can make you more powerful. I know you’re still struggling with your telekinetic power. I know you can’t really move anything beyond an object you can carry in your hand. If you join us, and with our help, you will be able to do so much more.”
That sounded somewhat tempting. Or it could just be a trap. “I don’t need to be more powerful. Has it ever occurred to you that I’m fine just the way I am? If you’re not going t
o give me the cure, then get lost.”
“Fine. If you don’t want to join us, you can get me the second-best thing: the files you took from Hermes and Dr. Po.”
Back at Ashlea Edwards, Blake and Rachael were setting up for their live batch trial. “I’ve installed extra cold-water pipes for our setup,” said Rachael. “That should get us enough cooling capacity to reach the temperature we need.”
“This looks very good. Thanks for staying late,” said Blake. “I think we should first start with a smaller batch. Test the water out a bit.”
“Not a bad idea. It will give us more certainty with our simulations.”
They followed the parameters they had calculated in the lab. Everything was transpiring as expected. An hour passed, and they obtained the targeted yield. Blake recorded the results in her notebook with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
“We should scale up to a larger batch to see if our theory works with a regular size production batch,” proposed Blake.
A ringtone interrupted the conversation. Rachael took out her phone and noted, “Oh, Zach says he might have a lead on decrypting the folder.”
“You should go,” replied Blake. “Everything’s going well here. No point having both of us watch paint dry.”
“Ok. I will send you a message if anything comes up.”
After Rachael left, Blake readjusted the parameters based on the larger batch size. It looked like it’d be at least an hour before reaching the critical cooling moment, and then a few more hours till the batch would be complete.
Fidgeting with her fingers, she monitored the bioreactor closely as the process reached the critical point. The cold water was activated properly, sufficiently cooling the batch. She watched as the culture regained growth momentum, allowing for maximum production efficiency. She breathed a sigh of relief.
As she sat down watching the batch reach completion, her phone rang. Her friends seemed to have made some headway on decrypting the folder. “Ok. I’ll be right there,” she confirmed on the phone. The batch was essentially on auto-pilot at this point, so she departed.