Leo craned his neck to look down the stairs and saw there were only thirty steps to go before they reached its end.
"Leo!" Alice shouted over to him. "I can't move! I can't do anything!They're too strong! It has to be you!"
"I'm trying!" Leo shouted back to her. She was right; he needed to focus. He needed to clear his mind...
Leo's instinctual desire to be aware of his surroundings was unquenchable, however. He couldn't bring himself to keep his eyes closed, and a constant stream of fears kept him from finding peace within himself.
His bearers continued down the last thirty steps smoothly and deliberately. He looked around carefully as they reached the landing and walked through a bare archway.
A monumental cavern opened up before Leo. It was bathed in dim blue light, and it rose up hundreds of meters above. It was at least half a kilometer across, and every surface was perfectly smooth. In the middle of the cavern, a gigantic cylindrical stone column protruded straight up from the floor. It was at least ninety meters high and sixty across, and smoothly carved stairs cut up around its perfectly vertical edge to lead to its plateau.
Leo couldn't see what existed on top of the column from his low vantage point, but from what he could tell, the cavern was completely bare apart from the massive stone feature. There was no technology anywhere, no machines, and no people, other than the group that were carrying them.
"Welcome to my home," Exony said next to Leo. He turned his head towards her voice and saw one of the pale-faced servants.
"It is a rather severe place; I will admit," Exony's voice said from the mouth of the large man who grasped Leo's left leg. "But it is a good place for me to think, and to work."
Leo held his confusion within himself as he watched the man's mouth move, but Exony's voice speak. Their captors were under Exony's absolute control, he realized, probably through the perverse use of nano-technology. If they were a manifestation of Exony's work there, Leo could only imagine the other terrible things she had developed within the deep blue cavern.
Leo tried to catch Alice's eye as he was trundled forth, towards the massive column, but his view was blocked by those who carried him. Was she forming a plan? Did she still have hope, or had she already given up?
It didn't matter, Leo quickly decided, as he tried to clear his mind. He didn't need her help; she needed him.
As he struggled to focus his thoughts and emotions, the group carrying Leo reached the bottom of the stairs leading up the column and began to ascend them. Leo rocked slightly with each step as Exony's servants carried him upwards.
He closed his eyes and focused on the rhythmic rocking. Up and down, up and down, up and down... He felt like a small boat floating upon the dark mass of a lightless ocean. The feeling calmed him, and somewhere, deep within, he felt the Void.
It was there, all around him. It was all around Annabelle and Alice, and even Exony. Oberon, Osiris, Titan, Ganymede... Earth... It was within everything. It surrounded and encompassed all, even the vast vacuum of space.
He could see it then, better than he had ever been able to before. It was darkness and light, fire and ice, life and death... It was divinely beautiful, and abhorrently ugly. Its voice was a symphony of majestic roars harmonized with the most utter of utter silences.
A profound sense of balance came over Leo as he reached out within his mind. He was so close, but he needed to stretch a little further...
"Do you want to know where you came from?" Exony voice suddenly called out next to him.
As her words entered his mind, the Void fled from him. The loss of the Void crippled Leo. It felt like his liver had been ripped from his abdomen. He felt terrible sadness as weakness began to overcome him and the pain flowed into his heart.
He instinctually knew the pain would kill him if he basked in it, and so he fled. Reluctantly, Leo opened his eyes.
The mindless servants still held him, but they had finished ascending the large column. They now stood upon a rocky plateau that was as flat as a still lake. He could see a single console that stretched out of the rock like a small obelisk. And, next to it, there was a small pool filled with a shimmering silvery liquid.
The sight of the liquid entranced Leo. It flowed this way and that as if some ethereal creature swam beneath its surface. He watched it curiously as the servants that carried him released his legs and set him down in a standing position. They let him stand there, but they did not release his arms and kept them firmly anchored behind his back. Then, they gathered at his sides and rear, and took hold of his shoulders with their impossibly strong hands.
Leo looked to his left and saw Alice and Annabelle being set down next to him. Alice watched the pool with a mixture of terror and curiosity on her face. Annabelle, however, stood there limply, her eyes closed, and her body slumped against the servants that held her.
Pangs of concern shot through Leo as he realized Annabelle's condition. What had happened to her? Had Exony corrupted her implants?
Leo felt his anger grow as he looked at Annabelle. He wanted to run to her. He wanted to place his hand to her heart and feel its soft beating against her chest. If Exony had hurt Annabelle in any way, he would see her dead. Of that, he was sure.
Leo's certainty suddenly morphed into a singularity of purpose in his mind.
Then, the majestic roar of the Void sounded within his mind once again. It was coming more natural to him now, he realized, as the roaring intensified and he began to close his eyes.
But then, something caught his eye, and the Void flowed away from him again. He looked on numbly as the shimmering surface of the pool began to stir, and a figure slid smoothly upwards through its surface.
The silvery liquid clung to the skin of the slim female form that emerged from it. She flowed upwards as if levitated through the liquid by some invisible tether until her feet rested upon its surface. Then, she walked gracefully across the surface, each step of her bare feet sending slow ripples across its flowing mass.
As she stepped off the pool's surface, the silvery liquid that coated her bare skin began to evaporate. But it wasn't exactly evaporating, Leo realized with dismay. It wasn't vaporizing into the air, but absorbing into her skin. It flowed into her pores as she gracefully marched over to him.
When she stopped, she gazed at Leo, Alice, and Annabelle with a sly smile on her face. Within a few seconds, the fading lines of silver had retreated completely, and she stood naked before them. She was unabashed, imposing, and timelessly beautiful.
After a few seconds, she raised her hands in a welcoming gesture as if to hug them, then let out a dull, humorless laugh.
Chapter 41
Exony Margolesh stood before them, just as Leo remembered her. The time that had passed hadn't had any aging effect whatsoever, apart from perhaps some change in her eyes. There was a sadness there that Leo couldn't remember from his memories of Venus.
"Do you want to know where you came from?" Exony repeated as she gazed at Leo, her lips curled upward in a knowing smile.
Leo ignored her question. "What have you done to Annabelle? Is she okay?"
Exony kept her eyes locked on him. "The Council's technology will not function here, I'm afraid."
Leo didn't like the look in Exony's eyes. There was condescension there. She looked like she knew something important and found it funny that Leo did not. She had probably deactivated Annabelle's implants...
"Do you want to know where you came from?" Exony asked for the third time.
"That's not why I'm here! I don't care!" Leo shouted while he surreptitiously tested the grip of those that held him. Their strength hadn't lightened at all, though. It was still impossible for him to move.
Exony chuckled, then closed her eyes as she turned her head upwards. "Why are you here, then, Leo? To kill me, perhaps? Have you fallen so far as to believe the lies of the Council?"
"Don't listen to her!" Alice yelled over to him. "Kill her!"
Alice's voice was quickly stifled when one of the servan
ts that held her quickly covered her mouth. She kept trying to yell, but all Leo heard was her muffled sounds of frustration.
"This conversation is between Leo and I," Exony remarked as she opened her eyes.
Leo's attention was drawn away, however, when one of the female servants walked in front of him, turned, and faced him.
"The Leo I remember would kill seventy innocent scientists rather than obey the Council's wishes," Exony continued as the servant reached towards his left arm. "The Leo I know would rather kill several thousand innocent spacefarers than bear the small inconvenience of facing the Council in person."
"I did what I had to..." Leo distractedly answered as the servant's hand touched the crook of his elbow.
He barely managed to maintain his composure as a silvery, wormlike tendril slowly emerged from the tip of her index finger and squirmed around weirdly.
"And are you free now?" Exony taunted. "Were the multitude of murders worth it?"
Leo heard her words, but his attention was now solely focused on the squirming tendril.He felt shivers run up his spine as it wiggled against his skin.
Then, it began to slice smoothly into his arm. He felt the tendril cut into him like a squirming shard of ice as it dug through his arm, then pierced into one of his veins.
Sheer terror began to overcome Leo's anger. The slithering tendril was sucking blood from his arm. He could feel it...
"What is this? What is she doing?" Leo demanded.
"It will benefit many," Exony answered. "In fact, it will be your most valuable contribution to humanity. It may even prove to be more valuable than mine. Time will tell..."
"What contribution to humanity? What do you mean?" Leo grunted as he struggled uselessly against the hands that held him.
"We are on the same side, you and I," Exony replied. "I am saving humanity from the darkness that I wrought, and so too, are you."
Exony closed her eyes eyes as the mindless servant withdrew her silvery tendril from Leo's arm, then moved behind him. He thought for a moment that the bizarre procedure was finished, but then he felt an icy, numbing sensation in the back of his head.
Leo shrieked like an animal as he felt the silver tendril stab into his skull and squirm into his brain. The sensation only lasted for a few seconds before his entire head became numb, and he could no longer perceive the tendril's movements inside him.
Exony opened her eyes and took a few slow and graceful steps toward him. "Have you ever heard of the Arcturan sample?"
"No," Leo grunted. He was thoroughly occupied with what was happening inside his brain. His arms and legs had gone numb too, and he could feel his strength slowly fading.
Exony continued walking toward him. "Many years ago, asteroid miners near Pluto discovered something interesting. It was on a rogue asteroid that had originated in the Arcturus system, a journey that had taken it almost a thousand years. They discovered it in their usual pursuit for platinum and other precious substances, but this discovery was more valuable than any metal or mineral..."
"I don't care!" Leo roared, "Get this thing out of my brain!"
Exony ignored his request. "This discovery, well... It could best be described as a sort of sarcophagus, and fortunately, those loyal to the Council elected to turn it over to our care. It was a rather benevolent act, considering the vessel was formed of pure uranium. The stories I heard from the miners there indicated that they were fearful because of the strange markings that covered it, and felt that opening it would bring them profound misfortune. They didn't understand the odd markings literally, but they sensed that it was a warning. I felt the same when I first looked upon it."
Leo's entire body was now numb. He couldn't feel anything, and he was now very tired...
"Perhaps they were right... Perhaps it was a warning, but we opened it nonetheless. We brought it back to Venus, and we cracked it open. And do you know what prize we found inside?"
Exony paused and stared at Leo, excitement in her eyes.
"No..." Leo grunted. For some reason, he knew it didn't matter what was happening to him... He needed to focus on what Exony was telling him...
Exony smiled brightly. "We found your father, Leo. He was human in appearance, but my scans revealed him to be an entirely different species. He was an Arcturan corpse, and miraculously only slightly decomposed over the thousands of years he had spent within his tomb."
"Y-you're... L-lying," Leo whispered.
"No... No, I am not," Exony assured him. "We extracted much from your father's corpse. And I used much of him to create you."
"You're lying!" Leo screamed as his defiance fought valiantly against the weakness that was spreading within him.
Exony shook her head and continued. "The Venus facility was built to make progress in the field of human genetic engineering. The Council and I wanted to know what was possible and what was impossible when it came to building a better human. Could I create humans with more desirable traits than those generated through natural procreation? Could I overcome the obstacles that had halted that field in the past? Could I breed humans with all the blessings that had only ever been bestowed through implantation?"
"Y-you're no b-b-better... Than the Council!" Leo moaned as drool ran down his chin. "You think you can play god, but all you do is ruin lives!"
Exony ignored him. "This wasn't like the ancient experiments conducted by the ignorant scientists of Earth, preventing disease and the like. This was a new chapter in the pursuit of human knowledge, and one that was divinely blessed with the only useable alien specimen discovered in human history."
There was no resisting Exony, Leo suddenly realized. He was so weak... His mind was barely working... Maybe Exony would show him mercy... That was his only chance...
"You see, technology is an amazing thing, but it ultimately has many limitations, and those limitations will never be completely eliminated. Speeding up the natural process of human evolution through my research seemed to be the ultimate solution to solving the ills that plague humanity."
Leo was tired. He needed to go to sleep... Maybe he would dream of Annabelle, he thought drowsily as his eyes slid closed...
Suddenly, a jolt of energy shot through Leo.
Annabelle! She needed him! He couldn't give up! He needed to fight! He needed to resist for her! He had to save her from Exony!
With a rough shake of his head, Leo opened his eyes and drew upon his remaining strength.
"So, I began my research on Venus to improve human lives," Exony continued as she stood before Leo. "It is an admirable goal, as I'm sure you'll agree. Little did I know, the program would morph into something completely different. It morphed into you!"
Leo gritted his teeth angrily. "And I ended it..."
Exony sighed with disappointment. "Yes, you did. We were completing monumental work, and I will never forgive you for sabotaging it."
"I don't give a fuck..." Leo grunted.
Exony brushed him off with a casual wave of her hand. "There were twelve subjects in the Arcturus project, each of them grown in vitro. I used the genetic information from the Arcturan sample to modify twelve different sperm samples, each of them imprinted the Arcturan's DNA. Then, I extracted my own eggs and fertilized them with the samples."
Leo was shocked. That was why she claimed to be his mother. It made disturbing sense to him and sent terrified thoughts through his mind. His strength began to fade again as he considered the truth of Exony's claims.
"I did my best to engineer the sperm to be compatible with my eggs, but many of them failed to each fertilization. Of the twelve, only six reached the embryonic stage. You were one of six that were successfully fertilized. I let you sleep peacefully through your childhood. Then, as you grew into a man, I brought you into the world."
Leo gazed at her with heavy eyelids. He needed sleep. He was so weak...
"When your hormonal development was complete, I pulled you from your tank, stimulated your brain, and woke you for the first time. I ca
n still remember the first time I stared into your eyes, and the first time I felt your breath upon my skin. I knew even then that you were very, very special. I knew that you would go on to accomplish the magnificent. You were a miracle, after all..."
"Your brothers and sisters weren't so lucky, of course. All of them either passed away naturally during their childhood, or killed themselves within hours of waking. Not you, though. You clung to life, and have now grown into the magnificent specimen who stands before me today!"
Leo could barely keep his eyes open as her revelations danced across his thoughts. It couldn't be true, could it? But, what about his gift? What about his ability to heal rapidly and his resistance to electricity? What about his unnaturally long lifespan? Exony's story might be hard to believe, but how was he to know that she was lying?
Most importantly, why would she lie to him about it? What was the point of struggling anyway? He was at her mercy... He was helpless...
No, she was right... It didn't matter... He was exhausted, and his desires were meaningless...
Exony stared back confidently. "You and I both know that I'm telling you the truth. Anyone could look at your DNA and see that you're not entirely human. Anyone could spend a day with you and know that you are the recipient of gifts unimaginable to any pure-bred human being."
Exony spoke faster as excitement lit within her eyes.
"You are a hybrid, and a glorious one!. Half-Arcturan, half-human, and possessing the unique abilities that manifest in one so divinely blessed. Your unparalleled vitality... Your long lifespan... I will admit that even I have no idea how long you will live, although I would gamble that it will be longer than I..."
Leo listened weakly. His anger had ebbed, and he was thoroughly beaten. He was exhausted by the silver tendril that swam in his mind. He was exhausted by Alice's mission. He was tired of trying to escape the Council and stay alive. He knew what Exony wanted. All he needed to do was listen...
She would show him mercy if he listened... he was so cold...
"And, let's not forget your most profound ability and your most poorly understood... Your ability to manipulate space and time at unplanned, but critical moments. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time together for me to understand that ability completely. We didn't have enough time on Venus, Leo, but now, we do!"
The Ganymede Legacy Page 35