by Paul Teague
It’s all a lot to take on board. Our Comms-Tabs have been taken away from us, so I’m not sure how much time we have left … but I know that we can’t have long now.
Simon and Kate are still at large on this ship. They must be up to something, so we have to trust that we’ve got people watching our backs.
Our best strategy is to stall, to buy more time. About ninety minutes at the maximum by my reckoning. It’s game over for me and Nat then anyway, but if we can cheat our way through this, evil Pierce may reverse this viral process and Nat and I could get out of this alive.
Harold Pierce agrees, but doubts if his brother will be convinced by his own subterfuge. And then he drops another bombshell on us. As if we hadn’t had enough already in one day.
‘I need to tell you children, my brother and I are the same as you,’ he starts.
Okay, we know that, we can see that you’re twins. Nat is thinking the same as me, this telepathy thing is pretty cool – if a bit weird to get used to. He can see that we don’t get it, so he carries on.
‘You and Nat are luckier than Henry and me,’ he explains. ‘We were the first twins born to a Zatheon mother and a human father.’
Okay, he has our complete attention now.
‘It’s why my brother and I were brought into the Genesis 2 project. Our capacity for learning and analysis is far superior to that of the average human, so we were obvious choices in many ways.
‘But times were different when we were younger in the 1960s, and they tried to suppress our non-human elements with drugs and experimental treatments.
‘I attribute my brother’s aggression to the treatments we were given – he’s a brilliant scientist but also a very troubled and dangerous man.
‘I blame the drugs, but I appear to have escaped from it with my sanity intact.’
Nat and I are silent. This is an amazing story.
‘We’ve been separated for many years now,’ he continues. ‘Our symbiotic connection was severed a long time ago.
‘Not unlike what you will be experiencing now, our connection will grow only stronger now we’re reunited.
‘As is the Zatheon way, we will battle it out in our heads, my consciousness fighting with his to come to a mutual resolve.
‘He will know soon enough that we’re trying to stall him, and he will quickly tire of my voice in his head, urging restraint and compassion.
‘When we were young he would torture me by pouring boiling water over me.’
Again he pauses, this is difficult for him.
‘Now I have no doubt. When he’s tired of me again, he will kill me.
‘And it will be spiteful when he does it.’
Stealth
Simon and Kate had known that they’d have Troopers on their tail before long, so they weaved as erratic a course as they could through the ship. Simon in particular was able to make sense of how this vast structure in the heavens had come together.
It was clear to him how it all fitted together now. The corridors on Levels 3 and 4 of each Quadrant had been curved, whilst the upper levels were straight and regular. It was like a giant pizza in space, each Quadrant forming one slice – or quarter – of the structure.
It was all based on a careful plan: they’d built in weaponry areas; they could fully re-populate here using the embryos that Dan and Nat had found earlier; they had a fighting force – the very Troopers they were running to avoid – and they had the ability to grow their own food up here. It was all very clever, and Simon began to recognize how in many ways he’d helped to create this.
He reflected on all the people that he’d transported over the years – the scientists, the politicians, the ordinary members of the public. He’d carried out countless surveillance missions, many seemingly random tasks, but he saw now how all of that work had come together.
He felt a certain sense of relief that the work he’d done was not all bad. Sure, something had happened that day with Nat, but it was looking more and more like it had been the result of interference from elsewhere. Perhaps it was an early glimpse of the sabotage that was to come.
Whatever it was, the answers were beginning to flow now, and most importantly – amazingly – Nat herself was alive still. He and Kate would need to find the heart of this place, that’s where the battle would need to be taken.
He wasn’t quite sure what the plan was yet, but he knew that they needed to see their enemy, they needed to know who – or what – they were up against. He’d agreed with Kate that they’d start moving towards the centre. It made sense that that’s where the main operation would be run from.
The corridors were still unusually quiet. It seemed as if they had no plans to use these Quadrants – the Troopers must have been making for some other place. They’d just passed from the outer rim of the ship – what had previously formed the lower two floors of the bunkers – into the central Orb, the part of this craft in which was concealed the main technical hub.
Simon had just ducked into a side room with Kate – in order to avoid a passing Trooper patrol – and they took a moment to look around and get a feel for this new layout. They were in a massive hangar area, it appeared to be disused, there were dust sheets over some of the equipment racks.
Something compelled Simon to pull off a few of the covers, to look a little closer at this area. As more and more equipment was revealed, Simon and Kate began to realize what this was. They looked at each other, they both knew.
They’d been here before. This was where they’d been immersed together in the simulation exercise all those years ago.
The experiments had not taken place on Earth, as they’d thought, they’d been carried out up here, in space.
No wonder they were transported to the location under sedation, it would be imperative to keep this location completely confidential. The realization hit them both at the same time.
And what of the strange figure they’d both seen in the corner just before they were rendered unconscious? It had seemed like a ridiculous fantasy at the time, a preposterous explanation. They’d barely dared to even venture the idea to each other. But now they were certain.
They were dealing with off-planet matters here and whatever was waiting for them on this ship, it was not of their world.
Chapter Three
The Precedent
The children were sitting up in their high chairs, playing happily and laughing at each other. The doctor felt a pang of guilt about what he was about to do.
The birth of these children had rocked The Off-World Federation to its core.
It was still early days for Earth within O-Fed and as the lead scientist he’d had to stretch the boundaries of his belief and understanding very quickly to get to grips with the implications of it all.
These children were the living consequence of what happened when different humanoid species began to procreate. Nobody knew what the outcomes would be, neither humans nor Zatheons even knew if the children would be born alive at the time.
The birth took place on Earth; the Zatheon mother was monitored securely from a military base in the USA. There was secret joy and wonderment when the twins turned out to be living and healthy. The Zatheon genes were dominant but these babies looked as if they had just been born to human parents.
The positivity of seeing two new lives created in such a way turned swiftly to politics as pressure grew from other O-Fed members to manage the situation in line with agreed Covenant protocols.
Certainly the Zatheon Elders would have loved their people to mix with the humans, and even though opinions on Earth were much more guarded, there was a general consensus among O-Fed members – who numbered much fewer in the sixties – that this was not such a terrible thing to happen.
But as newly joined members of The Off-World Federation, Earth’s representatives were unsure of their position, terrified of provoking an attack from planets much more sophisticated than their own, and preferring not to make waves.
This would chang
e of course as Earth technology accelerated in leaps and bounds, and we in turn became much more of a threat to the other eleven planets within the interplanetary pact, but at that time this was a new and potentially threatening situation to humans.
So it was decided, as it would be once again many years later, that the parents of these hybrid children would be punished for their transgression.
They’d simply fallen in love of course, but that was against O-Fed rules and – under duress from the Helyions – it was agreed that both parents would be Ostracized. This meant being separated from each other, their planet and their people, and living in isolation in self-sustaining pods in space. ISOCells.
Their basic needs would be met, but they would be forever segregated from all other life.
This rankled with the Zatheons, who were a cerebral and merciful species, but it was driven through by the Helyions. Even in the sixties, before the plights of both Earth and Helyios 4 were fully understood, the Helyions seemed to have earmarked Earth. They appeared to have taken a special interest in the planet and were extremely keen that its technology did not accelerate any faster than it would via natural evolution.
They were particularly keen to separate Zatheons and humans, as if they could sense the natural affinity between the two worlds and were keen to stop the relationship dead in its tracks.
Their reasons would become clear almost half a century later.
This left the doctor with a medical dilemma. His Hippocratic oath was to do no harm. But what was he about to do? Would it help these children or hurt them?
He consoled himself with the thought that animal testing had brought massive advances to man. Indeed, it was animal testing which had first brought Earth to the attention of The Off-World Federation.
The dog Laika and Albert II, the Rhesus monkey, had both been calculated risks at the time, but the experiments had resulted in successful space tests, paving the way for future human breakthroughs.
So, as he prepared the drug trials for these twins, he fought with all his instincts to do only good by reconciling the doubts in his mind.
This was an important scientific study, a huge opportunity to observe the first ever human-Zatheon hybrids. The Off-World Federation would learn much from this, and in future years, it may pave the way for closer ties between planets, perhaps even multi-species life on different planets.
As the first travellers on Earth had explored and spread across the globe so many hundreds of years ago when the first boats had been built, perhaps the same would happen in space in hundreds of years to come. And it all would have started with him, in this medical facility, with these twins.
The choice was made on a whim. Harold was to receive the placebo, Henry was to be given the experimental drug treatment. It could so easily have been the other way round.
The fates of two individuals were decided on that day, and no single person would ever be held accountable for the damage inflicted upon Henry Pierce as a result of those trials.
But the harm done to him would be irreparable and the whole world would be held to account for its silent acquiescence fifty years later.
Cloaked
The darkness surrounding the planet had taken on a blue hue now; it was still haunting, impenetrable and all consuming, but TerraLevel 2 was reaching its conclusion. This was the crucial next stage of the terraforming of Earth, the preparatory work was completed, what followed next would determine the planet’s future.
Undetected by the satellite monitoring sentinels surrounding Earth, an event had taken place that very few would ever know about.
In fact it would form the basis of a future alliance between Zatheon and Earth that would be kept for hundreds of years from The Off-World Federation.
Unknown to even Henry Pierce at that time, a cloaked ship from Helyios 4 had easily penetrated the satellite matrix surrounding the planet and entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Helyions were not supposed to be capable of creating such technology, yet here it was – they had deftly handled extended interplanetary travel. And nobody even knew about it. On any planet.
They kept many secrets below the surface of Helyios 4, but this was the one best hidden, it was the core deception that they’d planned for many years now.
As the awkward, brutal looking ship entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it made purposefully for a specific destination. Unseen by any monitoring or surveillance system, the Helyion ship hovered above Lake Karachay in western Russia, then began to sink slowly below the waters, like a hungry creature lying in wait.
This was the most radioactive place on the planet, the perfect location from which to create the first Helyion settlement on Earth.
Unbearable
Amy checked her weapon and made sure that it was on a ‘kill’ setting. She’d vowed all those years ago never to have anything to do with weapons again. And now, the man who’d caused her to make that decision was dead.
In wounding James then, and ultimately saving his life, she’d recognized that she had wielded a power in that moment that she never wished to possess again.
Yet here she was, almost twenty years later, with a weapon in her hand, less than a metre away from the man – the body of the man – whose injuries had forced that decision upon her as a 19 year old. She was angry – really angry – that she’d lost her friend.
But sitting by his body, preparing to make her final escape from this wretched bunker, she realized something about herself. She was not a killer and she never had been. She didn’t wish to become one either.
These Troopers – however threatening they appeared, whatever damage they’d done – they were no more in control of their actions than she and James had been when the pulsating, blue lights had been active in their own necks.
‘They are not responsible,’ she thought to herself. ‘Whoever is orchestrating these events, they are who is accountable for this.’
Amy flicked the switch back to its stun setting again, and knew as she did so that it was the right decision. She did not want any deaths on her hands that day, she refused to pass judgement on who should live and who should die.
The stun setting on these weapons was severe. It incapacitated even these powerful, highly-trained Troopers, so it would suffice for her.
She had been wearing the Trooper’s helmet for a few minutes and the female voice was coming through with a disturbing intensity once again. She still couldn’t make out the words, but she got an overwhelming sensation of sadness and isolation.
Whatever or whoever was controlling these Troopers, she seemed herself to be a hostage, trapped in a cycle of events that she was unable to escape from.
Amy pulled off the helmet. It was unbearable, she couldn’t stand the sound of the voices.
She was about to discard the helmet, when she thought better of it. She should take this back to Mike and Magnus – they may be able to make something of it. Perhaps work out what this female voice was saying – or where it was coming from – for starters.
She’d need to find a bag. She had a laptop and helmet to carry, as well as having to shoot her way out of here. There were a couple of rucksacks in the dorm; she thanked her good luck in coming here twice now and finding the things that she needed to survive.
Amy slung the bag over her shoulders so that it was secure and out of her way, and paused by the door.
The SymNode was activated. The only thing that could scupper this escape plan was if the glove didn’t work. Only one way to find out.
Amy exited the dormitory into the corridor. Damn, all six Troopers were in the corridor, still looking for her. Well, here she was.
Dan had prevented any more Troopers entering the area by causing the explosion further along the corridor, but who knew how long that line of defence would hold? She had a momentary advantage, Amy aimed her weapon and shot wildly at the Troopers. One down, two, three …
The remaining Troopers were fast. One of them was running directly at her with a veloc
ity and force which shook her for a moment.
She fired again, hitting the Trooper, but not managing to stop him. She braced herself for impact as he struck her with massive force, bringing her to the ground.
She felt a sharp pain as the wounds that she’d previously sustained cried out for attention. The device that Simon had used to heal her earlier had been incredible, but the recovery was not total, she was still experiencing a lot of discomfort.
She flinched, but knew that she had no time to recover, these Troopers would be onto her straight away.
The Trooper who’d floored her had struck her with such force that he’d damaged his own helmet visor as he struck the floor.
He was unable to see properly – he was having to remove the helmet to continue his assault.
The remaining two Troopers had weapons drawn, but were waiting to see what damage their colleague had done. It looked like they wanted her apprehended rather than dead. For now.
Amy lay still for a few seconds, just to sow the seed of doubt in their minds and buy another small time advantage.
As the Trooper to her side began to recover himself by removing his helmet, Amy turned over fast, shooting the two remaining Troopers ahead of her and bringing them down.
She got up to run for the lift doors, but the now-helmetless Trooper grabbed her ankle. She pounded his hand with the end of her weapon. He was gloved, but still his instant reaction was to let go to avoid the blow. These things might have been part machine, but there was still a human in there, with human reactions.
She ran for her life as fast as she could, leaping over the unconscious bodies of the other Troopers. Amy was aware of the final Trooper getting up off the floor behind her and preparing to run at her again.
He wasn’t going to fire at her, he was coming directly for her. This man – or machine – whatever he was … he could certainly run. And really fast too.