Unity

by Carl Stubblefield

  She opened the door and stepped inside. The *whoosh* of boot to the face whipped in her peripheral vision. Aurora bent back, barely catching herself as her flight ability activated before she could hit the ground. Anastasia bounced in a fighting stance and ready to attack again as Aurora tried to stand from her limbo stance.

  “Anastasia, it’s me!” Aurora hissed as she righted herself. Anastasia still eyed her warily, flicking her head to move some of the white knee-length hair out of her face. “We need to get out of here, something’s wrong at the Faction. Please tell me they haven’t processed you, or put you through orientation or whatever.” Aurora gripped Anastasia by the arms, worried eyes peering at her desperately.

  “No, they locked me in here like a prisoner. No explanations.” Her stance relaxed, but she was still on guard. Aurora thought that must have been the most words she had heard the super string together in, well, as long as she had known her. Her thick Russian accent indicated that English wasn’t her first language.

  “Rory is with me. You probably don’t know him, but he works on transports. They have some ceremony that has done something to him, and they plan on doing it to us. We need to get out of here before we can’t.”

  Anastasia just nodded and beckoned to the door.

  Finding Pulse’s room, Aurora made quick work of the box-lock and squirreled it away like the first. Heavy footfalls sounded on the steps, but it turned out to only be Rory, Yuki, and Darik hustling to keep up. Aurora opened the door, and found Pulse’s exceptionally organized room. His boots were neatly positioned at the foot of his bunk and he sat there calmly reading a journal of some sort.

  “C’mon, Pulse, we need to go, I’ll explain on the way.”

  “I don’t think I will, actually.” Not taking his eyes away from his reading.

  “What do you mean? We’ve got to get out of here,” Aurora urged.

  The others came into the doorway, to see how their teammate was faring.

  “They told us to stay in our quarters until they had further directions, and that’s what I intend to do,” Pulse replied calmly.

  “This is for your own good! We need to get out of here and reassess the situation. Something has definitely changed here; you can’t say you don’t notice it. They locked you inside!”

  He closed the magazine he was reading and stood up. “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t tried to leave. But you’re completely right. I’m seeing a big change. People are acting with discipline now. I don’t see a ton of lambs running around giggling and talking with their friends. Wasting time.”

  “They’re still human, even though they have powers, Pulse. This isn’t a military compound.”

  “It’s inefficient. They could all be through the Academy in three years and on to active duty, but we take four on account of the constant breaks and coddling. Just like this whole escapade we wasted almost a month doing. I didn’t even do anything worthwhile the whole time. I got shot at and then just sat on the ship in Hinansho while you and a couple others ran around. Do you realize what I could have accomplished in that time?”

  “You’re complaining that you got a little break?”

  “Tempest wasted his marker with me by requesting that I come along. If I wasn’t a man of my word, I would have sat this one out. Especially with what I know now. But with his fall from grace, he probably felt he had to cash in before he totally fell out of favor and had to leave the Faction. But what’s done is done, and all accounts are settled.” His eyes turned cold as he peered at Aurora.

  “Besides, it’s not as easy for some of us to be as loose and free with the rules as you are.”

  “What does that mean?” she replied indignantly.

  “Where is your loyalty? After the Faction dragged you out of the gutter like a piece of trash and turned you into what you are now. Now you’re ready to abandon them because you ‘feel a little weird’ or that ‘things have changed’?”

  Aurora wanted to break his little air-quoting fingers. “Loyalty is why I’m here, you insufferable prick! Come or don’t come, I don’t care, but right now you have a choice—that will probably change. Rory is not himself; they’ve done something to him. To one of our own. He’s been here a lot longer than any one of us, so what makes you think they’ll treat us any differently?”

  “I don’t know that grease monkey,” Pulse said with a shrug, plopping down on his bunk and reached for his magazine again. “Do what you want, I’m not being a part of it.”

  The others in the Crew looked back and forth between the two, now uncertain what to do.

  Rory shrugged and pointed to his watch.

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Sucker Punch

  “Oh, I see you’re back with us, Gus. I thought you had broken long ago. Now I am really impressed. I love the challenge of pushing someone to the utter limits, and it is very unfulfilling when people give up too soon. The younger generations lack the… resilience of their ancestors. They were made of stronger stuff. Tempered by suffering, they were refined into something durable. I did not expect that of you, however. I thought you had broken days ago. You’ve been fairly unresponsive since shortly after we began.”

  “What now?” Gus slurred through dry, cracked lips.

  “This opens up so many new possibilities though. I don’t want to get your hopes up, however. Everyone breaks eventually. But take solace in the fact that you have withstood more than many in your same situation.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe we’re more alike than I initially gave you credit for. You decided to come alone. I like to be alone. I’ll bet you thought you would do some unsavory things to me, and didn’t want your friends to see you that way. Either that or you prefer solitude. No one to limit you, or hold you back. Believe me, I do know what that is like.

  “So many people want to be your conscience and dictate what is right and what is wrong, as if those concepts even really exist. There is no need to ascribe value to a behavior, is there? It all seems like an artificial construct we humans have erected, for some reason. Does the behavior accomplish its intended purpose in the most efficient way possible? That is what needs to be sought.

  “Is that not the basis for natural selection? The strongest survive? If I were weak, do I deserve to be preserved to perpetuate that weakness? No! Those must be culled out from among us. The Nth give us an excellent opportunity to advance humankind, and we refuse to take it. That is another thing that my employer and I see eye to eye upon. No more pandering to the masses—we must elevate. This trend towards making everything easier is folly. It goes against natural law! The weak are supposed to die off. They are supposed to get sick. They are supposed to be the prey that falls to the predator. It weakens the whole to artificially preserve these among us.

  “I have always been fascinated by pain. What people will do to avoid even the threat of it is astounding. If you could quantify the amount of worry that exists from just the possibility of pain, I’m sure it would be staggering.

  “And the amazing thing is that this perceived threat does not even need to be real. It can be manufactured or implied, and the mind will take that and amplify it into so much more. Do you realize how easy it is to influence and control others with some well calculated suggestions?

  “The things people will do to avoid pain. It is so much more potent than the carrot. People will run from the stick, but they will do relatively little for the carrot if it isn’t easily obtainable. I see that as part of my duty. If humankind is to evolve, we must get past this hurdle. We must learn to love pain. Through it is the only way to true change and ascendance!

  “Since most will not willingly submit themselves to any form of prolonged stress, I have made it one of my pet projects to see how far we can go. And it is so much further than even I ever expected. Almost infinite potential, wasted by almost everyone. The tendency to give up is too ingrained. But not for much longer. I will blaze the trail that will lead us to the next iteration of what humankind can become
.

  “You, though, you provide an interesting specimen. I would not have suspected you to be one of the elite, yet here you are! Not everyone can undergo the transformation, but if you are any evidence at all, there could be more possibilities than I expected in raising those weaker among us to our level. I am not against progression, you see. If the weak can be elevated without wasting too many resources, then so be it. But the cost would need to be calculated. It’s entirely possible that you are an anomaly and the trade-off is not viable. We shall see.

  “I have been musing about your case as I have worked upon you. I recall when they contacted me about your situation. They told me they would hand me the situation all wrapped up tidy like a bow, and I’ll admit I did not believe them. The thing was, they were right. It is mainly the reason I work for my employer, you see.

  “Precision. In my work, it is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity. Take your case, for example. Do you know how difficult it is to fold the cells of a living creature so that you don’t break a single strand of DNA? It’s no mean feat. That’s one of the disadvantages of genius. You will forever be alone. No one can understand or appreciate all that it takes to reach that pinnacle. But you learn to not need that recognition. How ingratiating is it to be adored by fools?

  “I must admit, I feel a certain kinship to you. You have been touched by my hand and changed. By my grace, you have survived to this moment where you can finally serve purposes I need. Isn’t it fascinating how the universe rewards natural law? You sow the seed and do the cultivation and then years later the fruit is there to be plucked. I had not expected it would be you who came at this time, but I knew eventually we would meet again. Your mother served her purpose, much more than I ever anticipated. Maybe there is just something about your family, a combination of genetics and nurture that combine in the perfect storm of probability that is ideal for my purposes.

  “One thing I think I would like to see is how you unravel when I undo all of the work that I did to stabilize you. What will happen? The anticipation is killing me. And you too, now that I think of it, albeit in a different manner. However, I still have many tests to run. I appreciate that you have held on so I could collect as many samples as I have.

  “You see, I rarely get the opportunity to compare the physiology of someone before and after they make the change. It does gall me that I knew so little those years ago about the less material aspects of our species when I first worked on you, but the science just wasn’t there yet.

  “I have already made some connections that have been eluding me for quite some time. Discoveries that will allow me to improve myself. And that, my young subject, was worth all the time I put in crafting your ‘cure.’ Stagnation is really the worst of curses, and when you are at my level, it is so difficult to eke out any sort of advancement or growth. To be so close to godhood, but have it dance tantalizingly out of your grasp.

  “I think with time, these revelations will push me past those barriers that have kept me stymied for so long. So for that I thank you. Once again, I do feel compelled to remind you that this will not give you any clemency in my research, unfortunately. Ultimately, you are but a tool, used in the master’s hand. You shouldn’t think you deserve anything for that, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Gus flinched as Mengele brought out a scalpel and began to cut into the skin on his chest, using forceps in the other hand to keep it secure as he sliced delicately, teasing the skin from the muscle underneath. For some reason, though, the pain was less intense than usual.

  It was unnerving to see the swath of skin being separated from his torso with such cavalier aplomb, but Mengele had not detected this change in Gus’ perception. Gus did not understand it himself, but any absence of pain was such a foreign feeling after an eternity of torment.

  “You are getting better at your control; you didn’t move much on that one. I will have to try harder.” Mengele nodded to himself as he worked. “You know, I could bend the nerves near where I work and prevent your body’s pain signals from ever reaching the brain. Nerves are funny though, sometimes they don’t like being manipulated. I’ve seen them stay numb in perpetuity, and that just won’t do. Damaging the subject beyond repair is not what a craftsman does.

  “An artist knows how far he can go, how much color to add, how much marble to chip away, or how deep to cut. Every opportunity is a chance to hone the craft and skill.” Mengele leaned close, as if in a stage whisper. “And I do love my work. I have been practicing for so long now. Find something you love and you’ll never work another day, isn’t that how the phrasing goes?”

  Gus wanted to respond, but his jaw felt like lead. Any attempts at speech were thwarted as his muscles refused to obey.

  “I’m sure you will forgive me for not treating you like a child. My subjects learn how they are able to withstand so much more than they ever thought possible. The Nth really do offer a unique opportunity that I have found unparalleled with regs. Truly, I feel like I am getting a glimpse of the future. Of what mankind would be thousands of years in the future, after evolution has gone through countless iterations. The Nth merely accelerate this process and allow the body to reset.

  “A researcher couldn’t ask for a better boon if he tried. The inherent differences in various subjects alone is enough to corrupt the data. But a single subject that can regenerate, even act as their own control, it’s more than I ever thought possible. You see, I’ve been doing this,” Mengele waved his scalpel and forceps in circles to indicate his lab, “since before the Nth ever came.”

  “If you ask me, they chose me to be one of the first generation because, out of my peers, I was more developed and disciplined. Somehow they can assess that before integration. Capacity. That is the key.” He jabbed the scalpel close to Gus’ eye to emphasize his point.

  “Do you know your capacity? I am having the best time exploring it with you, I must say. The time I’ve given you to assimilate all those changes has got to be part of your resilience. It’s truly fascinating. When my employer revealed to me how he had orchestrated everything, even I was impressed. It was so… elegant. It accomplished so many things with such a succinct style.

  “You know, I’ve always been the smartest individual in the room for almost the entirety of my life, and it wasn’t until I met my employer that I realized that someone could surpass me.” His eyes turned steely and manic. “That won’t always be the case, mind you.” He stared at Gus, daring him to confirm that Mengele would not rise above his master. He relaxed his jittery eyes when they didn’t find the implied flaw he suspected Gus might be thinking.

  “I’ve let myself get too distracted. Another of my few flaws that I need to overcome. Focus, Gus. Focus is key. You cannot overcome or accomplish anything without it. Remember that.”

  Mengele chuckled and turned back to his work, and things became worse from there. Gus retreated inward to escape the pain that ensued.

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Escapade

  “There has to be a reason for all of this, Aurora, and I am staying right here. You can see yourself out, and if you return whatever you did to the door back to the way you found it, I would appreciate it. I don’t want to be a part of your little escapade. I already know how it will end.”

  Aurora worked her jaw soundlessly, trying to come up with a response. Finally, she just put her hands up in resignation.

  “Sure, Pulse. If that’s what you really want.” She looked at the other members of the group. “Anyone else? I know I can be bossy, but if anyone isn’t feeling this, don’t let me pressure you into coming along.” She looked at everyone, and only saw the other members of the Crew looking back with resolve.

  Anastasia just looked pissed as she cast a scowl at Pulse. “Let’s go then,” she whispered before turning on her heel and leaving. They closed the door behind them and Aurora removed the lockbox from her storage.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this…” she muttered to herself as she reattached and engage
d the lock.

  “I did some digging and I know someplace we can go to make a plan to get the others. They can track us most places, if they aren’t already. Aurora, I think you can help us with that. Darik, can you make a portal for us to wastewater management?” Yuki asked.

  “You want us to go to the sewers?” He scrunched up his nose.

  “No, we just need to get some concrete between us and that signal tower. It has to be underground and I need to find a control room, some place I can access the network. So not inside the sewer pipes themselves. Is it harder to pass through different materials?”

  “That’s not how it works, lass. But let me see. It’s much easier if it’s a shorter distance and I’ve been there before. D’you know if we can get there from the underground tunnels?”

  “There are tunnels?” Anastasia asked in disbelief.

  Yuki pulled up a map and began pulling and swiping the air in front of her. Seeing Anastasia’s confused look, Yuki swiped a copy over to the other members of the group. “Here are the Faction’s schematics… and yes! There, if we go this way we can get there.” She tapped on the destination, marking the desired nav-point.

  Darik squinted as he looked at his own display before stabbing a chubby finger midair. “Here. I’ve been here before.” He marked another point that populated the others’ displays. “I’m going to do this in a series of four jumps, I think that’ll throw them off. Each jump will get closer to one edge of the facility, and hopefully they’ll think we just left. They can’t track my jumps outside of the walls. But instead of going ahead, we’ll be going down. I really hope none of you had too big a breakfast, because I can pretty much guarantee one of you will throw up with that many jumps in a row.”

  The group looked at each other. Yuki turned to Darik. “I don’t think any of us have eaten today. They act like they’ve forgotten about us, and didn’t bring anything up for breakfast.”