by Eliza Green
Serena slid the mask over Margaux’s mouth and nose. The machine beeped and displayed oxygen levels.
They waited for a moment, but the numbers looked too low.
‘She’s not getting enough oxygen,’ said Laura, looking back at the supply area. ‘We should intubate.’
‘It won’t be enough.’ Serena pushed the machine aside and pointed to Laura’s mask. ‘Give her that. It will deliver a controlled level of oxygen to her lungs.’
Laura touched her mask. Her hesitance only angered Serena.
‘Quickly. She doesn’t have time.’
Laura drew in a deep breath and popped off her mask. She held it and the canister out to Serena.
Serena took just the canister from her. ‘Put the mask on her.’
Still warm from Laura’s use, she set the gel on Margaux’s face. Serena turned the oxygen supply on the canister down to a quarter of what Laura had been using.
The seizures stopped, but Margaux’s eyes were barely slits and her mouth hung open.
‘She’s still not getting enough oxygen.’ Serena fiddled with the canister. ‘We need to force air into her lungs.’
Laura raced over to the supplies, ignoring Stephen and Clement, who stood uselessly in the centre of the room. She picked up a second gel mask and canister, a tube big enough to pass air through, and an electronic device that would force air into Margaux’s lungs.
She returned to the bed, holding up the items.
Serena plucked the tube and electronic device from her hands. ‘Hold her still.’
Serena had discarded Laura’s mask and canister on the bed. She fiddled with the oxygen levels and grappled for the mask.
With it in place, Laura pressed down on Margaux’s shoulders, while Serena tilted her neck back and fed the tube into her throat. When it looked like she was in, Serena attached the electronic device to the oxygen canister and it began to push air. Laura released a tiny breath when Margaux’s chest rose and fell. But Serena didn’t look happy with the results.
She glanced at the machine; the oxygen stats looked low but healthy for an Indigene. Yet, it had still not roused Margaux.
‘Why isn’t she waking up?’ asked Laura.
Despite the extra air, Margaux appeared to be in trouble. Her lips turned a frightening shade of blue.
Without thinking, Laura detached her canister and fed the tiny tube into the larger one down Margaux’s throat. The electronic device pushed both supplies of oxygen into Margaux’s lungs. The colour of the former elder’s lips normalised.
A shocked Serena stared at her. ‘What did you do?’
What she had to. ‘I increased the oxygen.’
‘But that’s too much for her.’
Despite Serena’s reservations, Margaux’s eyes flickered open. She groaned, then clawed at the tube in her throat.
Serena grabbed her hands to stop her from pulling it out. ‘It’s keeping you alive. Don’t touch it.’
But Margaux appeared to be more manic than usual and continued to swipe at the tube.
Laura thought of something else. ‘Create an air bubble around the bed.’
‘Why?”
Stephen stepped forward. ‘I’ll do it.’
He turned on the device that amplified the controlled air pockets hidden inside the insignia rock. With the machine active, he drew a pocket of air out from the wall and guided it around the bed.
Serena stared at Laura. ‘That atmosphere is toxic to me. You need to do it.’
Laura pushed inside the bubble and pulled out the air tube from a groaning, thrashing Margaux. It popped out and Margaux coughed hard.
Blinking, the former elder said, ‘What are you doing to me?’
Her gaze bordered on manic as she took in her surroundings.
‘You weren’t getting enough air. We brought you to the infirmary.’
Margaux’s wild eyes flitted around. ‘Who are all these people?’ She stared at Laura. ‘Who are you?’
From outside the bubble, Stephen said, ‘Margaux, it’s Stephen. Serena’s here too.’ To Laura, he said, ‘She forgets things when she’s not lucid.’
Laura didn’t know the former elder all that well, but to her relief she was trying to sit up and looking better. In fact, she had a little colour to her pale cheeks.
Laura exited the bubble. ‘I think she’ll be okay now.’
Serena shook her head, leading Laura away from the bed. ‘It could be the first step before death.’
‘I don’t understand. Indigenes live longer than humans.’ Humans lived to 160 years. ‘Margaux is barely one hundred.’
‘In normal circumstances, yes. But the genetics of the first generation Indigenes contain a self-destruct code. I’d forgotten it until now. It’s something I learned about when I was human and working in the lab in Toronto. Apparently, the geneticists added it to control the age of the population. I don’t know how the changes manifest, but Margaux’s condition is severe enough to worry me.’ Serena paused. ‘She could be dying, Laura. And the Nexus may have helped to trigger her self-destruct code.’
13
A couple of days had passed since Harvey had shown up at the ITF offices and demanded to see Bill. To avoid running into Harvey at the hospital, he’d skipped his usual check on the status of the Elite and their hosts. He had no idea if Buchanan had been back to the hospital, or if he would continue to help Jameson, but Bill had needed space to think.
A new call had come through an hour ago, forcing Bill out of his solitude. It was from Jameson, asking if he would come to the hospital straight away. Bill finished up some work before calling his car. He was in no hurry to deal with an irate former geneticist from Earth demanding three clinics.
Bill left the ITF offices and climbed in to the car that waited for him by the kerb. He commanded it to drive him to the hospital. On the way, he wondered what Jameson’s emergency might be. Perhaps Harvey had absconded with all the medical data. Not the most farfetched idea; in the absence of his clinics, Harvey could cut his losses and run. But Jameson was no pushover. Besides that, according to the doctor, the knowledge was all in his head. Bill didn’t think the Elite’s personal physician had shared the medical data.
The car left the city behind and journeyed on a lesser used road towards a cluster of mountains. The car approached the compound and the guards opened the large and imposing, iron gates. The car pulled up to the front of the hospital, used in the past to treat sick detainees from the passenger ships and to deal with common Exilon 5 ailments. Cases of Russian fever, Japanese nerve damage, and Irish Ebola were being treated in hospitals more accessible than this one.
Bill got out of the car and smoothed his shirt and tie. His team wore more casual uniforms than his, but as Director of the ITF, he liked to present a more authoritative image.
He strode through the common hospital area. A regular visitor now, his presence no longer drew stares from the doctors and their assistants as it had done his first day here. Bill entered the corridor at the back of the room and scanned his bio signature on a flat plate next to the lift. The doors opened and he rode the lift three floors down.
The door opened and he exited through it. Pausing in the corridor outside the main doors to the lab, Bill prepared for Jameson’s news. Or, worse, a livid Harvey holding Jameson hostage. With a deep breath, he entered the lab.
What he saw surprised him. All ten units inside the cryogenic room containing the Elite were accounted for; opposite them, nine units. Jameson stood at the monitoring station checking stats with one of his assistants. He looked up, instructed his assistant to keep monitoring them, and walked over to Bill.
‘Where’s Harvey?’ His lack of presence surprised him.
Jameson shrugged. ‘Haven’t seen him since that day you made a house call to Marcus. He came back down here ranting and raving that you were making a deal with that “fucking freeloader”. His words, not mine.’
‘So he hasn’t stolen the data?’
‘Unle
ss he kidnaps me, it’s safe.’ Jameson tapped the side of his head. ‘But he did say he was done with all this and wasn’t coming back.’
Bill didn’t understand. ‘What’s the emergency then?’
Jameson hooked a finger and brought him to the monitoring station with its collection of screens. Bill rounded the desk. Several of them showed 3D body images of the Elite, including their vitals—heart rate, blood pressure. The latter was abnormally low, but Bill presumed that was due to their genetic alterations and not something to worry about. The images of the Elite and their vitals rotated between two screens every few seconds. On a third screen, similar details on the Conditioned flashed up.
Jameson positioned himself at the second screen and pulled the information out until it presented as a hologram. The image appeared to be a set of DNA molecules, but Bill was no scientist. It all looked like gibberish to him.
‘What am I looking at?’
Jameson pulled up what appeared to be an identical photo of DNA and placed it beside the first image. He adjusted the images with his fingers until they lined up perfectly.
‘These are two snapshots taken of Elite Seven’s DNA. The one on the left shows his DNA from yesterday, the one on the right from today.’
Bill frowned at the identical looking images. ‘What am I looking at?’
Jameson pointed to a slight variation in the second DNA photo, compared to the first. ‘His telomeres are shortening. He’s ageing faster than usual. They all are, even in stasis.’
Bill didn’t understand how. ‘I thought stasis halts all changes.’
‘It does, under normal circumstances, but the Elite have undergone some pretty intense tests. I should know since I conducted them. Their DNA is breaking down fast. Not as fast as if we had them out of stasis, but enough to call you in.’
Bill folded his arms. ‘What’s your recommendation here?’
Jameson shrugged. ‘We’ve got Elite shells that are almost out of life, and Conditioned hosting minds that don’t belong in there. We have to transfer the consciousnesses back.’
‘Can you do that without waking up the Elite?’
Jameson shook his head. ‘I’ll need to connect them to the machine that transferred their consciousness the first time around. That means taking them out of the pods.’
Bill wasn’t ready for the Elite to die. ‘And if we do nothing, how long do we have?’
‘I don’t know, Bill. Days, weeks, months. Your guess is as good as mine at this stage.’
‘Can’t you reverse some of the damage?’
It was Jameson’s fault the Elite were in this state of decay.
‘Maybe. But I’m not sure why we’re keeping them alive. They made their choices. We should transfer the hosts back into their original bodies and let nature take its course.’
What Jameson suggested was the right call, but doubt nagged at Bill. To kill the genetically enhanced creatures felt like the wrong move.
‘I can’t order that. Find a way to delay their decay.’
Jameson grew angry. ‘What about the Conditioned? You’re effectively sentencing them to death. Their minds aren’t as strong as the Elite’s they share a consciousness with. You saw that for yourself when we woke up Seven.’
The doctor had a short memory.
‘Let’s remember who put them there in the first place.’
Jameson’s jaw tightened.
‘Do as I ask. I’m not ready to let the Elite go. Find a way to halt their decay. That’s an order.’
A tight-lipped Jameson said, ‘As you wish.’
‘And if Harvey shows up again, let me know straight away. He’s not a happy man right now, and I’m worried he might try to sabotage things here. Be wary of him.’
Bill walked over to the glass partition between the lab and the cryogenic room containing the pods. He examined the first Elite. While his appearance indicated no further degradation, the DNA evidence presented a more destructive picture. His gaze went to Tanya, her pod resting against the back wall. She was neither part of one group nor the other. With Simon, her host, dead, her husk would remain without its captain, regardless of what they attempted here.
Jameson stood next to him. ‘She pushed the others into the idea of transcendence. They didn’t want it.’
Still looking at Tanya, Bill said, ‘She came from the same school of thought as Charles Deighton. This was always going to be the outcome. I just didn’t want to believe it.’
☼
Bill returned to the ITF with a plan to look for Harvey. If he knew where the geneticist was, he could keep an eye on him. He entered the sixth floor, out of breath and seriously contemplating his new exercise regime. The office space, while fully occupied, had a flat energy to it. Things were too quiet. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. There was that fear again, rising inside of him, telling him to be wary.
Bill passed by his team and entered his office. He closed the door and rounded the other side of the desk. Just as he went to sit down, something flashed up on his monitor. A message.
He frowned as he activated the message with his finger. His first thought was Margaux, trying to make contact again. But the chat room was idle; so was ‘mystery101’, her chat room name. According to the time stamp, someone had been active in this encrypted space just a few moments ago.
His DPad shrilled, knocking him back from the table. His chair hit the wall with a thud. ‘Shit. Fuck.’
Bill grabbed the chair and sat down. He stared as someone called his private line, a number given out to only a few. With his pulse hammering against his ribs, he set the DPad against the monitor and activated it.
The blank screen swapped over to an image of the roughly hewn walls of the district. His pulse slowed.
‘Stephen?’ he asked.
A face came into view that quickened his pulse more.
‘Laura,’ he breathed out, nearly dropping the DPad.
His wife stared back at him, looking the same as when she’d left, over three weeks ago. Or when he’d forced her out of the apartment. She left because of him.
Her green eyes were dulled by the lack of light. Deep shadows marked her beautiful, pale skin.
‘Bill,’ she said without affection.
Walls of steel encased his heart. Now was not the time for a reunion. He may have forced her to leave, but she’d made her choice to stay.
‘I’m sorry for calling you on your private number.’
‘That’s fine,’ he replied, matching her tone. He cleared his throat. ‘What can I help you with?’
Laura stared at him, as if his formal tone surprised her. But instead of commenting on it, she said, ‘There’s trouble in the district.’
Her voice was a low whisper. It reminded him of the other times she’d risked communication with him. She’d been working in the Earth Security Centre at the time and had been trying not to get caught.
He stiffened. ‘What’s wrong?’
Laura looked off to the side, as if listening, then back. ‘It’s Margaux.’
He widened his eyes. ‘What’s wrong with her?’
‘She’s sick, Bill. Three days ago, she collapsed in one of the tranquillity caves. She’d just been using the Nexus and had a seizure after disconnection. We brought her to the infirmary here where she struggled to breathe. The only thing that saved her was to increase her oxygen levels.’
Bill let that sink in for a moment. ‘I don’t understand. Oxygen in greater quantities is harmful to the Indigenes.’
Laura’s eyes widened. ‘I know. That’s why I called you. Something is happening to her. You know the self-destruct code in the first generation? Serena’s not sure, but she says the Nexus may have triggered Margaux’s.’
‘Is she still alive?’
Margaux had made contact with him not that long before she got ill.
‘Yes. But the change in her has Serena worried, and me. Serena says drastic changes to how a body functions could be a sign of it shutting down.’
‘And the other Indigenes?’
Laura shook her head. ‘Nobody else is showing symptoms.’
Bill sat back with a sigh. A knock on the door interrupted him.
‘Not now,’ he shouted, waiting for the visitor to leave. When he was sure they’d gone, he drew closer to the screen. ‘Okay, let’s go through this again. Margaux used the Nexus. After, she developed an aversion to the lower oxygen levels in the tunnels?’
Laura nodded.
He pursed his lips. ‘Margaux called me a few days ago, possibly on the same day as her illness.’
Laura leaned forward. In a whisper, she asked, ‘What did she say?’
‘That things weren’t right there and that she was the only one who knew. She asked me to help the Indigenes.’
Laura shook her head in disbelief. ‘Why didn’t you say?’
Maybe he’d been distracted by Ben’s reaction to Marcus being alive, or Harvey’s demands. ‘I didn’t think it was an issue. We know Margaux can be odd at the best of times.’
Laura frowned at the table. Then she looked up and caught him staring. He steeled his fragile emotions.
Keep it professional.
‘Stephen keeps saying everything is fine, but I don’t know.’ Laura sighed. ‘He says Margaux is still grieving for Gabriel and it’s just her mind processing things differently.’
‘All the more reason why we should listen to her.’ Bill made a bridge with his fingers. ‘Tanya invaded the Nexus three weeks ago and did God-knows-what in there.’
‘She died in the Nexus.’
‘Maybe she did, or perhaps she left a little of herself behind.’
Laura frowned. ‘What are you saying?’
‘We don’t really know if Tanya contaminated the Nexus.’
‘There’s no proof of that.’
He dropped his hands. ‘No, but Margaux uses it and suddenly the district air is no longer enough for her? Guess what other beings could breathe both types of air.’