by Eliza Green
He didn’t recognise any of the Conditioned who, despite their lack of hair and muted eye colour, still retained their human looks. Not surprising. Bill hadn’t gotten to know any colleagues back when he’d been an investigator. The Elite across from him? Even though their husks were severely withered, he recognised a few faces from his meetings with Tanya and the board members. But did he know any of them? No.
Would he care if any of them died? Not really.
He couldn’t think of one person who’d sided with him; one person who had shown an ounce of compassion for the Indigenes. Daphne Gilchrist had been the only person to resist the plans to create a third species. Her difference of opinion had forced Charles Deighton to kill her, over eight years ago.
A whirring noise started; it sounded like it came from inside the stasis pod. He remembered Laura’s stint in one of these contraptions during her transformation from human to Indigene. The only way to halt her changes had been to put her into a temporary coma. He imagined that stasis was helping to halt the mind degradation of the Conditioned too.
His gaze slid away from the restrained Conditioned to Harvey, who had left the room. He was standing next to the assistants at the workstation and screens. He was absorbing details like a kid at a science fair.
Maybe it had been a bad idea to involve him after the doctors went missing.
No, without Harvey’s help, Bill might have lost all of the Conditioned. And he certainly wouldn’t have known it was possible to reanimate the Elite after death. Marcus Murphy, his prisoner? Well, Harvey had a knack of keeping that former criminal from Earth under control.
‘How much longer?’ Bill asked when it looked like the Conditioned might never wake up.
‘Soon,’ replied Jameson. ‘The body needs time to rid itself of the chemicals we use to induce sleep. But be warned; you might not have a lot of time to talk.’
It was better than nothing.
Bill studied the doctor’s face, wiped clean of emotion. One question came to mind. ‘Why did you do it?’
‘Do what?’
‘Transfer the Elite’s consciousness to the Conditioned?’
Jameson shrugged. ‘I told you. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been some other doctor.’
‘Exactly. Why did you care who carried out the transference?’
The lanky Jameson shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He bent his neck as if to come down to Bill’s level. Bill wasn’t short by any means, but the doctor towered over him.
‘I wanted to see what would happen,’ he replied. ‘These projects don’t come around too often.’
Any other answer would have been a lie. A man of science rarely passed up the opportunity to experiment on humans. Harvey’s eagerness to shadow the assistants’ work outside was testament to that. The wolf was out of his cage and running wild. It would take a big payoff to fence him in again.
Bill refocused on the first pod to see Conditioned One’s eyes flicker open. The bald man, aged around thirty years old, blinked and looked around. A metal bar across his chest kept him upright. His eyes crinkled before settling on Bill.
‘Where am I?’ His voice sounded cracked and soft. Conditioned One cleared his throat. ‘Where is this?’
Bill touched the glass. ‘You are in a stasis pod.’
The male squirmed beneath the restraint. ‘I’m on a passenger ship? Where are you taking me?’
‘Calm down,’ said Bill. ‘You’re still on Exilon 5.’
The former human appeared to relax.
Bill withdrew his hand from the glass. ‘What’s your name?’
The Conditioned dropped his unsettled gaze to him. ‘Elite Seven. Tell me, young man, is the fight over?’
He lifted his unbound hands, frowning at them. Then he looked across the room, probably to where his old body was.
‘Yes, it’s over,’ said Bill.
The Conditioned struggled against his restraint once more. ‘So why am I a prisoner?’
Jameson said, ‘You occupy another’s mind. Only one of you can survive in the body.’
The Conditioned stared at the doctor. ‘So save me... the Elite.’
‘What about the other mind?’ asked the doctor.
Elite Seven shrugged. ‘I am more valuable than the Conditioned I occupy. They were created to aid our transformation. What happens to him is not my concern.’ His gaze flicked over to where his original body stood upright. ‘But it appears to concern you.’
‘Yes.’ Bill saw no reason to lie. ‘The ITF is not in the habit of killing people once they’ve outlived their usefulness.’
To his surprise, Elite Seven, in the Conditioned’s body, laughed. ‘Is that so? The ITF is the most barbaric among us. All humans are.’
‘Something you used to be once.’
Elite Seven’s eyes narrowed at Bill. ‘You look familiar. Not from now, but before.’
‘I used to work for the World Government.’
Elite Seven nodded as if he remembered.
‘Were you for change or against it?’ Bill asked him. ‘I seem to recall the board members being split on whether to give the Indigenes a chance.’
Elite Seven said, ‘For this move. Evolution? Well, I saw no harm in it.’
‘Did you advocate for transcendence?’
Elite Seven twisted against his body restraint. Even if he got loose, the pod was sealed shut, the glass unbreakable.
‘I was, until Elite One, or Tanya Li to you, changed the rules.’
One of the assistants entered the room and handed Jameson a DPad. Harvey followed clutching a second one. Both men, Bill assumed, were monitoring the vitals of the awakened Conditioned.
Jameson frowned at the DPad. ‘The Elite’s brain waves are getting stronger, Bill. Ask your questions fast.’
Bill concentrated on the Conditioned. ‘What had Tanya’s plan been?’
‘Originally?’ Elite Seven focused on the ceiling. ‘To transcend, so we could live in the power supply on Exilon 5. To control the machines, essentially.’
‘And then?’
He looked down at Bill. ‘Well, she got a taste of the Nexus—we all did. It invigorated us for a while, but the changes didn’t last. Tanya wanted more. We just wanted to die.’
‘Is that what you want now?’
Elite Seven studied his smooth hands. ‘In this body? No. I had just reached my seventy-fifth birthday before the more aggressive experiments started and almost killed me. But in this younger body, I could do so much more.’ He paused, looking across the room. ‘Her body is here. But her consciousness, did it survive?’
‘Dead. Along with her host.’
Simon.
But Elite Seven didn’t look convinced. Because of it, a knot of worry grew larger in Bill’s gut.
‘Did she make it inside the Nexus?’ the Elite asked.
Bill nodded.
‘Then there’s a chance she didn’t die.’
Stephen had said it was impossible for a foreign entity to survive in what would be a harsh environment for them.
‘We’re certain she didn’t survive.’
Elite Seven raised a hairless brow. ‘How certain?’ He wriggled beneath his restraint again. ‘Release me and I can help.’
‘Not an option, I’m afraid.’
Elite Seven grew angry. ‘Then why keep me here at all?’
‘Because I have questions.’
‘I can answer them out there as easily as in here.’
If Bill released Elite Seven while he still occupied Conditioned One’s mind, he would be killing the host’s mind.
‘You share a mind. You do not belong in that body.’
Elite Seven tipped his chin to his original body. ‘So why do you keep my original form?’
‘In case Tanya is not gone.’
‘Ah, so you don’t think she’s gone either?’
Bill ignored his question. ‘We need to study your genetics and how they might cause problems for the Indigenes.’
J
ameson said, ‘Bill, wrap it up.’
Elite Seven huffed. ‘So you won’t let me live in this body and if you transfer me back to my own, I might die?’
‘You will, eventually,’ said Jameson.
Elite Seven thrashed about in his confinement. ‘I did not sign up for this.’
‘None of us did,’ said Bill, ‘But I’m certain you got what you wanted.’
Elite Seven glared at him. ‘And what’s that?’
‘A glimpse into the future of what we could become.’
Bill heard a whir begin once more. He turned to see Jameson making a cutting sign to the assistant outside the room. The sedative was being re-administered to Elite Seven.
Jameson shrugged at him. ‘Sorry, Bill. His brain waves were weakening the second mind too much. Any longer and we would have lost the host.’
Bill faced the pod again to see Elite Seven succumb to the drug once more, muttering, ‘I didn’t sign up for this...’
‘I hope you got what you needed from him,’ said Jameson. ‘If your goal is to preserve the submissive mind, we can’t wake the Elite mind again in this body.’
Bill nodded. ‘I got enough.’
‘What do you think will happen?’ said Harvey, almost sounding like an ally.
In his gut and in his bones, nothing good. Stephen had told him nothing bad had happened in the district after Tanya’s attack. And if Bill wasn’t a pessimistic investigator with a nose for trouble, he might have believed him.
Without answering Harvey’s question, he said to Jameson, ‘Keep monitoring their vitals, doctor.’
‘For how long?’
‘Until I say so.’ To Harvey he said, ‘Keep an eye on him. Make sure he does as he’s told.’
Harvey smirked. ‘Sounds like you want more from me. I need my clinics, Bill.’
His request? To be reinstated as a legitimate geneticist with three fully staffed clinics, to start. Bill hadn’t forgotten. Nor had he forgotten how Harvey loved power and prestige as much as Charles Deighton had. Given time, what havoc could the former geneticist unleash?
He waved off his demand and left the cryogenic room. ‘Soon, Harvey.’
If Bill had his way, never. But he sensed Harvey would not let him renege on his promise.
4
Out in the stony landscape, Laura sighed. Activity of the rogue human-Indigene groups, one led by Harvey Buchanan, had died down since the GS humans attacked District Three. But the leader of District Three had ordered more surveillance, not less, of those groups above ground.
Dressed in a black tunic and trousers, she sat cross-legged on the ground next to Serena. In their sights? The construction house on the outskirts of New London, the same one from which Harvey had operated. Laura assumed Harvey’s new distraction with the captured GS humans and their DNA had broken apart the groups’ efforts to disband the ITF. Even though she had turned her back on her old life, she still wanted to help protect the ITF and the treaty.
Watching the house reminded her of recent surveillance sessions with Bill. Except theirs had been to watch Tanya and her band of mutated board members. The only difference between both times was her Indigene skills were sharper now. Both her night vision and her hearing had improved. The second she stopped denying her Indigene side and went to live with the tunnel dwellers, she possessed a new clarity of thought. Not about Bill, but about where her true abilities lay.
It wasn’t to do with speed, but in seeing the lies in people. Her “deception skill” as Clement called it. The lie manifested as an impassive, dark figure or shadow behind the person. The greater the lie, the more the shadow shifted out of alignment.
‘This is boring,’ declared Serena.
Laura stared at one half of District Three’s elders. The title did not fit the striking, blue-eyed Indigene of a similar age to Laura, and with a rare ability to control the Nexus.
‘I agree.’ Laura stood and stretched out her aching limbs. They’d been sitting like this for hours. It was late evening, dark, and quiet. ‘Nothing’s been happening for weeks. Should we go?’
Serena appeared to think about it. Then she shook her head. ‘We stay. If Stephen is worried about the rogue humans and Indigenes resuming missions again, then we should be too.’
Laura agreed, but without intel to go on, it was difficult to know if they were even watching the right place. Stephen had been in touch with Bill, who had informed him that encrypted chatter on the interstellar wave had dried up.
Her pulse quickened at the thought of her husband, her best friend, bypassing her to speak to Stephen.
You asked him to stay away, Laura.
Her thought remained private, thanks to her improving ability to keep the Indigenes out of her head. She had Clement to thank for that.
‘Maybe we should come at it from a different angle, get the human underground operatives to do some city recon. I’m certain the group is no longer confining itself to the safe houses.’
Serena shook her head softly. ‘If we head back too early, Stephen will know and worry even more. If our being here lightens his load, then we stay.’
Laura chuckled. ‘If Bill were here, he’d probably just go up to the house and bang on the door.’
The intense look Serena gave her dried up her laughter.
‘Do you regret walking away from him?’
Laura concentrated on the house in the distance, pushing against Serena’s attempt to influence her decision. ‘Of course, but I need to figure out things, figure out who—what—I am.’
‘And you can’t do that with Bill by your side? For as long as I’ve known you both, you’ve been the best of friends.’
Thinking about how she’d left things with him turned her stomach.
‘If I could ignore my changes and pretend to be only human, he’d be here with me instead of you.’ Her words came out sharper than she’d intended. With a sigh, she added, ‘I’m sorry, Serena. I just don’t want to talk about it.’
Serena slipped into a deep silence, something that came natural to her. But given Laura’s heavy mood, it only made her feel worse. The truth she refused to admit out loud worried her: the longer she stayed away from Bill, the harder it was to reach out to him. Surely, that spoke more about her feelings than anything else?
‘You and Clement seem to be getting on well.’
The innocent statement from Serena made Laura squirm.
Yes, she and the Indigene from District Eight had gotten close over the last few weeks. Clement had vivid blue eyes like Serena, which also made him a third-generation Indigene. Serena had been the first to be created from a second-generation Indigene’s DNA—Anton’s to be precise. Clement had been working undercover with the human-Indigene rogue groups to learn more about their plans to overthrow the ITF. Despite the quiet activity of the groups, Laura felt in her gut their plans were not yet done.
‘Clement is helping me to understand my skill, that’s all.’
If it hadn’t been for him, she might have struggled more with her life change.
‘That’s good,’ said Serena.
She fell silent again, which only made Laura’s guilt blossom in her chest. She suspected the Indigene with the ability to influence others’ behaviour was not done with her advice.
She was right.
‘Just be careful. He is very fond of you.’
‘He’s just a friend, Serena. A good one after everything I went through to get here.’
Serena held her hands up. ‘I’m not saying anything. I just want you to keep your eyes open.’
Laura bristled at Serena’s accusation. She clambered to her feet, shaking off the simmering tension between them. ‘There’s nothing going on. And I’d appreciate it if you’d mind your own business. I’m a grown woman. I can make up my own mind about people—or, in this case, Indigenes.’
Too annoyed to stay, Laura ran in the direction of the district, kicking up landscape dust with her bare feet. She barely got a mile before Serena caught up with
her.
With a hand on her shoulder, the leader of District Three jerked her to a stop. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s good of Clement to help you.’
‘It is.’ Laura shucked her off. ‘Thanks.’
Serena nodded at the safe house in the dark distance. ‘How about we call it a night?’
‘What about Stephen?’
‘Don’t worry about him.’
Laura resumed her return to District Three, this time at a walking pace. ‘My head’s not in it. Sorry.’
‘Don’t be.’ Serena walked beside her, hands behind her back. ‘Why don’t you use the Nexus to help sort out your mind?’
Laura hadn’t used it, for fear it would erase her human side. ‘I’ll think about it.’
They arrived back at the district and the door made of strong omega rock. Opening it, they found an anxious Stephen waiting on the other side.
‘Why are you two back so early? Did something happen?’ His eyes honed in on Serena.
Serena’s concern for her mate was evident on her face. Stephen had been shouldering the responsibility for the entire district alone. Laura felt bad her discomfort had broken up their surveillance tonight.
‘It was my fault,’ she said.
Serena smiled and took his hand in hers. ‘Everything is fine. Laura was feeling ill and wanted to return early.’
Stephen switched his grey eyes, flecked with yellow, from Serena to Laura. She suppressed a shiver beneath a gaze that could get as intense as Serena’s.
‘You should use the Nexus to heal.’
Laura offered him a smile. ‘Thanks, but I think I just need sleep. I’m still part human, you know.’
Serena flashed a smile at her, a sad one that held another apology. Laura patted her on the arm to acknowledge it and left the pair to it. They vanished in a blurry haze down one tunnel. Laura’s own speed, while impressive, did not match the gait of those who were fully Indigene.
Instead, she ambled down a tunnel, feeling the wall and the vibrations it gave out. That was a new experience. She’d been having many new experiences of late, probably due to spending so much time in the district. Despite her feelings of guilt, it had been the right decision to leave Bill. Had she not, her skills might have taken years to manifest properly. At least, that’s what she told herself as she arrived at her accommodation in the south of the district.