Athena Lee Chronicles 0: The Lost Pilot

by T S Paul

  His best assistants DNA was exactly what Government scientists were looking for. Both her and her husband. They were young, healthy, athletic, and already associated with the Government. In Ann's case she still owed money the Government for her education. Her husband also had a degree, that of agronomics. Not much call for that in Georgia anymore. If the damn Cybers hadn't crashed the systems at the CDC the Zanto-M crop blight might not have gotten loose. Crops across three states had been decimated before the antidote had been found. All that grew around here anymore were pine trees. The other thing that 'they' wanted was Government representatives to push America's agenda on the colonies. The theory was if they used actually Government employee's that they were more likely to stick to the plan. If he was about 20 years younger, Howard would go himself - it sounds like a real adventure.

  When Eddie and Ann cautiously walked home that night they were bursting with their good news. According to the test results, they were perfect candidates for the next colony ship. They had less than a week to say their goodbye's and to report to the Government training center in the old sports arena. They both had large packets of reading material that explained their new duties as Government agents and colony supervisors. To them the training didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore here on Earth. They were going on an adventure and kissing Earth and all its problems and politics, goodbye.

  Chapter 2

  Scientists have proved that conception begins with a flash of light. I don't know if that's really true as I did not see the flash. My first memory is of swimming in a tube filled with a thick, clear liquid. I was breathing the liquid, not air. I later learned that it was an artificial Perfluorochemical that was allowing us to breathe as our small bodies developed. As soon as my brothers and I registered awareness our training and indoctrination began in ernest. Our artificial conception was the work of a lifetime for many of these Government geneticists and scientists. We were not clones. Using donated genetic samples scientists had engineered each of our parents DNA to make perfect superior beings. This sort of research had been tried several times in the past. During the 1940's German scientists had attempted to breed a 'master race' using natural selection. Crude, ineffective, and mostly horrific attempts at genetic manipulation were also conducted. That time period helped to give the art of eugenic science a very bad name. The art of Non-human Genetic manipulation reached its peak in the 21st century. Scientists were constantly creating new crops and breeding smaller pets for homes. Pressure from parental groups and educational trusts forced Congress and the President to lift the ban on Human experimentation with a goal of curing or preventing childhood illness. The were being born with birth defects at an alarming rate. Many medical professionals laid the blame at the feet of industry and technology. Many rare and genetic based diseases killed infants on a regular basis. That sort of research was supposed to prevent it. With the lifting of the bans on human experimentation, all sorts of human modification began. . While fixing birth defects had been the initial goal, other genes were modified too. It had begun small.

  The US military first conceived of the 'Superhero project.' Emulating a popular comic book hero, Government scientists began using RNA retroviral vector gene transfers to create changes in volunteer soldiers. At first the scientists helped with small things such as better eyesight, obesity, and better reflexes. With success came a greater push for more results. Muscle tone and stamina were increased among the volunteers. Still politicians and military leaders wanted more. Why just create a stronger soldier, why not make a real superhero? Or a thousand superheros?

  With the massive push for favorable results many mistakes were made. Participants began to look more like professional wrestlers than the ideal 'Superhero' figure. Combinations of steroids, retroviruses, and gene therapy cocktails of new drugs began to change the volunteers. Several soldiers began to resemble another comic book 'hero'-a green one. But not in a good way. Bulging muscles made it hard to hold certain weapons and to squeeze into combat vehicles. This fact alone is what canceled the program. All of the volunteers were removed and either sent back to their units or hospitalized until a reverse treatment could be found. Then it leaked to the media. All of the successes to this point were invalidated when the first pictures of the participants were released.

  Without the drugs, therapy, and chemical cocktails, the volunteers slowly wasted away. Muscle tone was lost overnight. All of the men and women appeared years older than they really were. The chemicals either faded hair color or caused it to fall out. Gathered in a group the 'superhero's' resembled concentration camp survivors from the previous century. Officially, all work was stopped and records of the experiments destroyed.

  Contrary to history not all of the experiments the 'superhero' project created failed. What they had been trying to do was increase stamina, agility, and longevity. This part of the program was where success had been made. A few of the longevity projects worked, its participant's survived the experiments and thrived. No actual superheros were created. Not really. America's leaders had wanted soldiers who could run all day and not get tired. They wanted them to live longer and fight faster, with more skill. The fact that they actually succeeded was covered up and hidden away. The successful experiments were studied and dissected to learn their secrets. Many of the secret project's originators and supervisors used some of the serums created on themselves. Why shouldn't those in power have more physical power?

  A few rival countries had similar programs Their programs focus had been to enhance their soldiers strength and stamina only. Many of those programs were sabotaged or destroyed. Any success that the other powers had made was destroyed in the media blitz when the program was discovered in America. The surviving experiment subjects all died under mysterious circumstances.

  With the advent of star travel and colony ships there was a need for pilots and crew members who would be able to survive the trip. Many of the secret gene therapy programs were dusted off and brought to light under the auspices of helping the space programs. The media either ignored the fact that these were the same experiments or they were already puppets of the governments.

  If the program we were born into had a name, it was never told to us. We only heard it called 'The Program,' or at least that is what the scientists and trainers all called it. My brothers and I were kept in the tanks until age one. I suppose that being released from our liquid prison was what being born feels like to a natural born infant. There were fifty of us in the beginning. Fifty very inquisitive, extremely smart babies. The process of enhancing DNA was technically, still illegal, but we belonged to the Government. The eugenics program had been a huge secret for many years. We were to be the test subjects and ultimately the pilots for the new colony ships. There were several other groups of 'enhanced' children in the project. We found out later that they were earmarked for crew positions on our ships.

  All I can remember from my first year is people talking to me and watching Vid after Vid. We spent our first year in special cocoons that both supported our growing bodies and provided everything we needed to survive. Nutrients were fed to our bodies and waste was removed. Exercise was provided using electrical muscle stimulation (EMS). Several of my brothers left this plane of existence during those early years. The system was not perfect. We were infants that could not communicate that the electricity being piped through out small bodies had too much current, or that the 'food' system had a malfunction. Well, you get the picture. The deaths were not noticed as a whole. There were several hundred of us, all in creches, by this time. I am told that they fixed the problem later in the project.

  By year two we could carry on clear conversations with our keepers. English was our primary language but we spoke several others. The languages that I learned were English, Spanish, German, and Russian. Some of my brothers were learning Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, and Punjabi. All the languages of the Colonies were represented. The programs sponsors in the American Government intended for us to be able t
o converse in as many languages as possible in order to interact with the colonists on the ships. All of these classes were to lay a foundation that the advanced classes could build upon. As a group we were about to turn four, when the world began to change.

  Chapter 3

  Shortly before our fourth birthday's our world changed. As a whole, we only were aware of the political change because we were studying Government policy and structure at the time. The Cyber Wars and then the push for colonization had made many changes inside Earth's governments. Here in the United States the Government had grown less effective. It's worldwide reputation as a 'voice of reason' now heard only faintly. Overseas, the European Union was broken- it was shattered into a thousand small city-states by the Cyber Wars that had raged across the planet. Robotic drones still rampaged in a few areas as one city warred against another for precious resources. The African nations reveled in the bloody strife and, ethnic cleansing had taken the place of the rule of law. The middle-east was surprisingly calm. Many of the wealthy governments in that area had already left on colony ships built specifically for that purpose. The Nation of Israel in a surprising move built three massive ships, packed their people aboard and Left. Destination Mars Colony. Islamic adventurers had gathered on government sponsored ships and departed to bring Islam to the stars. Millions of people had already left the Earth voluntarily or been sent off to prison worlds by their governments. Why fight over land when there were entire worlds to be had elsewhere?

  The United Nations had for over a century been a political entity past it's expiration date. It's ineffectiveness dated from the late 20th century when the blue hat wearing 'peacekeepers' became more joke than real. Too many rules and restrictions prevented troops from effecting change in the nations they helped. During the Cyber Wars the UN had helped nations secure the peace. Many misunderstandings had to have already occurred before they would step in to help. But with the world so very disorganized and still in conflict in so many areas, it was ripe for a takeover. The thought of a single world government had often scared many people in the past. Wars throughout history had been fought in this endeavor. All of that had been before the chaos of the Cyber Wars. Votes in the security council were taken, armies were marshaled. Military might and hidden powers were about to be revealed.

  Almost overnight the United Nations organization went from an ineffective organization to an effective one. Money and troops poured in from everywhere. To some in the news media it seemed to be an organized effort by someone to take over the planet. Those reporters that announced this theory aloud all disappeared from public view. Within six months the UN controlled 80% of the world. The only holdouts were Russia and the United States.

  ____

  My brothers and I watched the political developments as part of a history lesson. We were now four years old. Our basic training was almost complete. Understanding the structure of government helped us to understand why the colonies needed more control like the countries of the Earth. A controlled system would help to manage resources, growth, industry, and progress. Over an over that lesson was pounded into us both by the academics that taught us and the trainers that beat us.

  Arriving back at the dormitories that we called home, we found packets of information on our beds. Enclosed were detailed instructions of both our training and future assignments. I, like my brothers, grabbed my packet and flipped through it studying it intently. My new assignment was flight school and combat training. Future postings could be anything from front line military to a colony ship pilot. The posted schedule also stated that I was also leaving in the morning for flight school.

  "Anthony, what assignment did you get?

  "I got flight school. How about you?"

  "The same. I think most of us are going to the same school. Unit's two and three are to recieve Military training and Unit four is being sent to Intelligence."

  "Yes, brother Issac said that most of Units five and six were being sent somewhere else. He and brother William 07 are going with them."

  I looked at my brother. Unlike me Anthony was a large naturally heavyset boy with dark hair. Our genetic studies would say he had Asian or Northern Russian ancestry. I like many of my brothers have a slight build and paler skin and hair. The textbooks say that we'd come from Northern Europe or the British Isles. None of that really mattered to us. My brothers were my brothers and I was sorry to see many of us leaving.

  At that moment Sergeant Slight opened the door to the dormitory and began shouting.

  "OK, you have your assignments now move! I want those beds stripped and the linens dumped in the hampers. All kits shoud be packed and ready for inspection no later that 1040 hours. Everyone and I mean everyone is to be in uniform and ready for personal inspection at that time! Do you understand me!"

  "Sir, yes, Sir!" We all yelled at the same time.

  "Excellent. Now get to work!" The sergeant turned and left the doorway. We, secretly, called him Sergeant Slaughter, after an animated vid we had seen in the library.

  Getting the dorm ready was a team effort. It was already 1000 hours and forty minutes was not a lot of time to pack, get dressed, and police the area. We were ready at 1038 hours when the sergeant returned. With him were several civilians and a strangely uniformed military officer. What we remembered the most about them was the officers blue hat.

  Sergeant Slight did not introduce the civilians. He and the officer inspected the Unit very carefully. They checked our uniforms, personal gear, and living spaces. It was almost as if they were looking for something that we could not see. The civilians never said a word to us. They watched us like we were rats in a maze, with the sergeant holding the cheese. Later in life, I would see some of those civilians again.

  After inspection Sergeant Slight introduced the officer. "All right cadets! Listen up, this is Major Johann Ahlf he is the Commandant of the Flight school that many of you are traveling to. If your assignment is flight school, you are to shoulder your duffel and line up outside to await transport. Move It!"

  As we ran from the room I mentally said goodbye to my brothers. It would be many years before I saw any of them ever again.

  Chapter 4

  Flight school! The best part was that is was in space on the UN's new space station, Hope. Major Ahlf traveled with us to the space port and then we left the surface of the Earth. The UN surprised the world by building Hope shortly after the Cyber Wars. It had been a massive undertaking that cost a fortune. Where that money had come from was still a mystery. Only one high profile newsie investigated those rumors and she died in an air car crash shortly after. No other reports have been filed after that.

  Our shuttle was more of a flying box with wings than a real shuttle. As troop transports go it really sucked. We had one window to see out of and all 100 of us were trying to use it. They had just piled us in and sealed up the doors. No spacesuits for us. The Major said that we would get all of our equipment once we made it up to the station.

  The station looked massive. It was bigger than many of the colony ships that Earth had produced. It resembled a large spinning toy top with it's three levels and a pointed ends. A surprisingly elegant design. Judging from the many windows and sheer size of it all, there must have been room for thousands of people on board. We could see several hundred suited workers still finishing up construction on the station. The final level looked to be almost finished. As we began to dock several of the US Air Forces' newest space plane the X-50 flew by. Maybe this wasn't just a UN space station?

  The docking bay resembled what pictures of the hangar of an aircraft carrier looked like. It was a large warehouse-like room empty in the middle. On both sides of the bay were X-50 space planes. From the numbers it looked like there was a full squadron present. These fighters unlike the the Mark 1 Starfury had upgraded missiles, double War Shot cannons, triple the armor, and fly by drone capability. Their presence surprised me because our instructors back in the program had said that they were still only in the testing
stages. With a grinding noise the large hanger doors closed and a whoosh of air signaled that the bay was being pressurized. A flashing green light gave the OK signal. Our cargo container was unsealed and we were let out.

  Stumbling out of the cargo container we noticed that three other transports were unloading just as we were. All four groups of us began to line up in columns as if awaiting inspection. Overhead we heard a loudspeaker call "Attention!"

  "This is your Commander Major Johann Ahlf, as you can see there are four groups of trainees. In the coming years you will be tested, as we train you to be either the best pilots this world has ever seen or its greatest military commanders. You are the best that this world has to offer. You have been specially designed to meet every trial we can throw at you. Believe that we will, too. In a moment you will be led to your housing areas. But first, take a moment to study the fighters before you. Soon you will be flying them." We all studied the gleaming white fighters. All were without US markings and carried an unusual symbol on the tail section. It was a golden pyramid with an eye in place of the point. The letters N.O.S. were shown underneath the symbol. It would be many years before I understood what that symbol meant to either to myself or to the galaxy at large.