Discovery

by Douglas E Roff

  While Dr. Giancarlo Garibaldi took most of the heat for his obvious and open disdain for all things Fortizi, by contrast Dr. Gold was widely considered to be both extremely competent at her job and, politically, a Gens Traditionalist in every sense of the word. Reliable, honest and hard-working, no one had anything bad to say about her. Her loyalty to the current leadership of the Gens Collective was likewise beyond question. Brilliant in all the scientific disciplines that mattered, and a long-time supporter of the Fortizi Clan through her own Clan affiliations, she was considered the flower of Gens female intellectual accomplishment.

  Tragedy had struck her family many years earlier when her husband had been killed in an accident while on assignment to one of the Gens Preserves in Southeast Asia. She had refused to bond again with a new mate and instead dedicated her life and formidable talents to the cause of the Serum Project.

  Following the death of her husband some seven years past, Dr. Gold had taken time off to reflect on her life and to mourn her loss, as was the custom of her Clan. She transformed to natural state for a period of ninety days, then reverted to her human form. She eventually asked for permission to immigrate to the United States and, when approved by Paulo and the Great Council, took up new duties in the Chicago BioGen facility. She was assigned to the Serum Project and slowly worked her way up the scientific hierarchy. She was often asked to travel and provide updates to the various Gens Regional Councils on the progress of the Serum Project, as her communication skills, both oral and written, were much admired and appreciated by leadership.

  Dr. Gold was well-known and well-liked in all Gens scientific circles around the globe.

  It was well known that Dr. Gold felt isolated and alone in the world since the death of her mate. She often kept to herself and rarely socialized outside a small circle of friends and colleagues. She had only ever worked for the one small Gens lab in South Africa run by her husband, undertaking narrow biochemical research into transformation collateral for the larger Serum Project. While the research had been promising, it had been unfortunately lost in a fire which ravaged the rural facility, killing all three Gens researchers who had been working with the Golds.

  The two losses, one on top of the other and only two years apart, were thought to be almost more than she could bear. It was then that she asked for reassignment to the United States for a fresh start, and, in due course, it was granted.

  Paulo felt that her stoic handling of the tragedies in her life had been exemplary. She worked her way up the scientific hierarchy in Chicago, eventually being placed in charge of key aspects of the Serum Project at the Chicago facility. She was certainly not the most qualified researcher on staff, but she was gifted organizationally, and her Clan was politically well connected. That mattered, and to Paulo it was key. Dr. Gold was someone who was reliable and could be trusted completely.

  After the little-known Gens scientist arrived in America, she excelled and seemed to otherwise be faring well. Granted, her research was progressing slowly, but this wasn’t felt to be due to her skill or efforts; the problem of human and Gens genetics had been discovered to be far more complex than first thought.

  Dr. Calista Gold had married young and well. What wasn’t known, even to her husband at the time, was that her sister was Saldana Ri, the fiery young leader of the Black Shirt Movement. Calista was a talented research scientist in her own right, without question, but not as accomplished, in many ways, as her husband, Dr. Nathanial Gold. When the relationship of his wife to the leader of the Black Shirt faction finally came to his attention, it caused friction, something her husband felt the need to address.

  Dr. Nathanial Gold was dedicated to the preservation of the Gens Collective way of life and was a well-known Traditionalist. His African Clan was among the most ardent supporters of the Fortizi Clan leadership and were reliable, long-time political allies. Dr. Calista Gold was assumed to be from his Clan, just from a different part of the continent.

  Edmund was shocked when he discovered his wife’s radical politics and decided that he had to do something about it; he had to tell somebody, somebody in authority. And he resolved he would, even at the potential cost of losing the affection of his wife. He thought long and hard about what he had to do and would act just as soon as he returned from his trip to the Mekong Delta Preserve in Southeast Asia.

  Dr. Nathanial Gold never returned alive from that trip.

  ***

  Dr. Calista Gold had grown up in a small primitive Clan in the wilds of Siberia, near the Mongolian border. She was at that time known by her birth name, Arissa Ri, a radical who followed in the footsteps of both her small Siberian Clan and her well-known and radicalized older sister. When Saldana Ri left the Siberian wild to join the Black Shirt Movement, so did Arissa. Arissa then changed her name, falsified her back story and began a second career as a deep mole for the Black Shirt movement. She wholeheartedly clung to a Fundamentalist set of beliefs; Arissa had no long-term plans. For that matter neither did her sister. They would move around from place to place and wait for their opportunities, if they ever came.

  As Calista Arden, she eventually attended the University of South Africa, distinguishing herself academically and graduated with an Honors degree in organic chemistry. In due course she met a promising young academic, also from South Africa, and married. She then began a career in an arcane offshoot of Serum research with her husband at their small lab far outside the purview of urban eyes and the Gens leadership.

  In Chicago, she had deliberately slowed the pace and direction of research in the Serum Project, while at the same time creating her own disciplined research group of dedicated Black Shirt fanatics and fundamentalists. Dr. Calista Gold had happened upon an interesting side effect of an early synthetic serum developed by her brilliant geneticist husband, Nathanial.

  Based on research into a rare breed of South African frog, the two had found it possible for a Gens in natural state to retain some level of the knowledge acquired while in human form. Such knowledge resided in the unconscious mind and palpably enhanced Gens mental skills and abilities, potentially creating an even more potent and dangerous version of the Gens in natural state. It also allowed for a basic form oral communication between the two Gens states that had never before been thought possible, except only briefly during the transformation process. The Gens had always been able to recognize each other in either state but oral communication directly with other Gens was only possible in one state or the other, but never between states.

  Never in the Gens oral traditions nor in recorded history of the Gens Collective had this happened. It was thought to be impossible.

  It was not. Not any longer, anyway.

  Natural state Gens could now retain some basic aspects of the human knowledge gained in transformed state. The effects were immensely important, and this serum also assisted in forcing transformation to natural state and maintaining it, just not as completely as the Serum Project was designed to do. Minor amounts of human blood were still required to supplement the serum, but a great deal of progress had been shown in eliminating that requirement also.

  Dr. Gold worked on this serum project, while falsifying data for Paulo and the two Councils. Her fruitful work with her small dedicated team of Black Shirt fundamentalists continued unabated. She and her team used the Chicago lab and its advanced research facilities to continue her work in secret, while simultaneously inhibiting the work of her co-workers on the principal Serum Project.

  Only Saldana Ri was aware of her sister’s identity and her work with a small cadre of rogue Black Shirt scientists. When the time came, all would be revealed but still more work was needed to be done. They hadn’t perfected their process but felt additional breakthroughs were imminent.

  If a safe E-5 vaccine could be synthesized for the Gens, they would be getting close to a start date.

  For war.

  Another piece of the puzzle was rapidly falling into place. The noose around the ne
ck of humanity was slowly closing. Soon it would be time to act.

  ***

  Shortly after meeting with Paulo and Enzo Fortizi in Princeton, New Jersey, Dr. Calista Gold flew to Northern California to meet in secret with her sister and a group of committed Black Shirt fanatics. They had recently been given a large test batch a synthetic version of the serum that had quickly forced transformation to natural state, with significant retention of human knowledge.

  The ability to communicate between Gens of different physical states was to be fully tested in the field to determine the parameters and depth of understanding between Gens in each state. Could transformed Gens command natural state Gens in military fashion? If so, coordinated attacks in the future could also be tested as a prelude to war. It might also allow for a more discriminating and focused attack on human communities, something not previously possible with Gens in natural state.

  The Gens in natural state were often driven by primal urges and instincts and incapable of restraint when dealing with humans which were biologically perceived as a both a threat and food. The two species had a history and it had not been a good one. The Gens did not normally kill for sport or pleasure, except when transformed to human state and even then, very rarely.

  So, whether by genetics or otherwise, the modern Gens in natural state had never adapted to life alongside homo sapiens and still dealt with them instinctively on a primal level as a scourge and a threat. Thus, the urge to kill, sometimes indiscriminately, was an adaptation to a natural enemy and it was most often overpowering.

  Treating homo sapiens as prey had a natural drawback. Upon consuming a human, blood was also consumed resulting in transformation. Thus, fighting humans in natural state was a limited endeavor and, as a military force, of virtually no significant long-term battlefield value.

  Transformed Gens were a different story altogether and military organization was both possible and had been historically successful. However, transformed Gens lacked the natural camouflage of their primal brothers and sisters and were subject to the same constraints and limitations as humans.

  Could knowledge retention and oral communication among states change this dynamic?

  They would soon see.

  Chapter 16

  Adam sat is his newly minted home office, less than a kilometer away from his old homes and stomping grounds in the residential colony adjacent to the Institute. He and Misti had begun splitting time between Barrows Bay and Seattle and to do so, and keep his extended families happy, he had insisted that the Institute provide an appropriate home on the grounds of the Institute, fully modernized to meet his exacting technology standards and needs.

  The location Adam and Misti had chosen was the site of an old forestry station, long abandoned and almost forgotten, located on a small wooded knoll just outside the tight perimeter of the Institute’s main campus. Misti had insisted that if they were going to reside in Barrows Bay, even part time, she wanted a modicum of privacy and seclusion. She did not express, but everyone knew, that she preferred some amount of distance and a clear line of sight to the main access road, so she could see who was coming up the drive for a visit. Misti was all family most of the time but drop in visits from even her closest friends and relatives had rapidly become tiresome. In the months following the beginning of her new life together with Adam she could not have been more welcoming and open to everyone, no matter how distant the relation.

  But as the newness and the attendant desire to show off her man began to wane, so did the reality of life with a large extended family and friends who could not seem to get enough face time with the new couple. Misti was simply running out of small talk and patience.

  Indeed, their first trip to Barrows Bay was largely precipitated by the old dilemma of “fight or flight”, contextually recast, and her desire not to become trapped in her own home by well-meaning family. Misti chose not to fight with them about ‘boundaries’; there were simply too many of them to get the point across effectively and the older generation wouldn’t abide by her rules anyway.

  So, the happy couple ran away to Barrows Bay for a few weeks, ostensibly on official ‘Adam’ business and his desire to confab more directly with Edward on pressing matters concerning some new research duties. All of which was in fact superficially true but hardly necessary. Digital work could be done almost anywhere. And the cell phones in Seattle work quite well.

  From this point on it became clear that they would need permanent onsite accommodation as the Institute’s guest cottage was not set up for active use either by Misti or Adam. They trundled off to small offices at the Institute, but this arrangement was hardly conducive to their best work. So, in near record time, a three thousand square foot cabin was erected, outfitted and furnished. A secure basement with second floor offices and a couple of additional guest rooms, together with all sorts of digital goodies, was completed within a month and a half of their permanent migration north. Their work was now secure to the level required by the various government agencies and security services and, with their collective chis no longer disturbed, they moved in to enjoy, work and recreate in their new home.

  They said nothing of their new getaway lodge and two hundred fifty acres of secluded wilderness along the southern Oregon coast, not far from the California border. This was for special, non-working occasions when the totality of their lives became too oppressive for them to manage even in quiet Barrows Bay. On those rare occasions, they simply got in Misti’s Mustang and drove south. When their heads ceased to feel as though they were going to implode, and the calm of spirit returned, they returned north to the daily grind.

  Life had settled down for Adam, who had not felt the demands of their extended family as acutely as Misti. He was not atypical of many computer geeks and technology mavens with his somewhat incomplete set of social skills; he could be rather abrupt and rude even to those he loved most. Just not to Misti, with whom he shared a psychic affinity that sometimes scared even him. While they were not quite yet at the “finishing each other’s sentences” stage in the evolution of their relationship, he nonetheless found that he either understood, or thought he understood, the ebb and flow of her daily emotions, frustrations and even the depth of her love. In no way had he been prepared for her to enter his life and he both reveled in the happiness he felt as well as feeling a haunting tinge of fear; that one day he would lose his new love. Adam was far from superstitious but somehow still felt that the St. James men were cursed to find their soulmates, only to lose them suddenly to tragedy. He worried about Misti’s safety and was reluctant to be away from her for any length of time.

  As for Misti, who didn’t want or need Adam’s protection, she found his protective instincts charming and sweet. In a different kind of relationship, she might have found the constant attention to be suffocating and far too clingy and annoying. But given the reality of their situation, she was OK with it most of the time. When it distracted, she would visit Cindy and Rod and occasionally Maria or Edward.

  In an odd way, Adam felt as though he had begun to understand his father in a way he never had previously. Is this how his father had felt with his mother, Anna? And when Anna was so suddenly taken from him, was this the sense of despair his father must surely have felt?

  Three months into a new life in a new home he began to love more than his work or anything else the material world could ever provide him, nagging doubts and modest fears began to creep into his psyche like a mild infection.

  And, those doubts would unsettle him; they wouldn’t leave him alone.

  At first, Adam kept this to himself unwilling to even acknowledge that his fears existed anywhere other than in his troubled mind. Nothing had happened, and nothing would happen, he told himself. This was but a trick of light brought on by the death of his mother in an outlier of circumstances. Surely this could not and would not ever repeat again; after all, they now lived in Barrows Bay. Hell, they didn’t even have a coffee shop in Barrows.
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br />   And yet, he couldn’t shake the dreadful thoughts that penetrated deep into his brain and consciousness. If this was the dark side of an all-consuming but most welcome love, he would learn to adapt and control it. He had to. What other choice did he have?

  His efforts were, however, fruitless as he was always in some small amount of emotional turmoil. If his angst would not abate on its own, he would do what was for him had always been unthinkable – he would talk it over. With Misti.

  Their initial talk was long and interrupted from time to time by Adam’s occasional need to cook and Misti’s occasional need to answer her phone. Misti tried the rational approach first, and when that failed to connect with Adam, she told him he should immediately tell her whenever anxious thoughts entered his consciousness. She thought the more he voiced his fears outwardly, the better she would understand his emotional state. Then he would eventually come to realize that everything was OK. And that everything was going to be OK.

  In her mind, with time and conscious expression, his low-level panic attacks would slowly begin to dissipate. She understood his anxiety to be real and told him so. And in accepting it as real, they would deal with it. Together.

  ***

  Adam reflected on what they had discussed and how he felt about it, attempting to put it in its proper perspective. Cordoning off and compartmentalizing intellectual pursuits in his mind was easy; Adam’s incredible ability to remember and store even the most far flung and minute details was a practiced habit with which he was quite comfortable.

  But unwanted thoughts of losing Misti would rise to the surface at any time, often triggered by a vague recollection of something in his past. He tried hard to understand the connections, but he found he couldn’t. They just were.

  Lengthy separation from Misti was no longer possible, he thought, and he would commit himself to anything and everything in his power to assure her love for him. He began to bargain with himself for relief. If that meant change, then he would change. If that meant accommodation, he would then he would accommodate. And if that meant commitment, then he would happily commit.