by Ivan Kal
“I love him, and he loves me.” She said.
“I love you.” For a moment Adrian thought he said it only in his head, but then he realized that he said it out loud. He turned and looked at Beth standing there looking at him strangely.
“You love me?” She whispered. Adrian nodded stupidly.
“You had a long time to tell me that. Years, and you never said anything. Did you think that I was going to wait for you?” She said.
“We will live a long time, we have time.” Adrian said, and immediately regretted it.
Bethany’s face formed into an expression Adrian knew very well, it was the same expression she had at the academy, when she looked down on him, insulted him.
“A long time? I grew tired of waiting for you! I waited for years. It is your own damn fault, you were too cowardly to say anything, and I moved on.” She said, turned around and left, walking back to the table. Adrian watched her leave, a piece of his heart ripping away. The person that walked away didn’t seem like his Beth, his best friend. The way she spoke and acted seemed more like the Bethany that threw insults at his face at the academy, who looked down on him. He believed that that Bethany was gone, but maybe she was always there, only he refused to see it. A beer bottle hit the bar behind him and Adrian turned and looked at it, he then looked back at the group talking amongst themselves, laughing, even Harry, a complete stranger. He had his hand around Bethany. Adrian turned back to the bottle.
A few hours later, and countless bottles later Adrian felt a hand touch his shoulder.
“Let’s get you home buddy.” He heard Paul say.
“Where are the others?” Adrian asked.
“They already left, it’s just me and Alex.” Paul said, gesturing to Alexander behind him.
He then reached down and lifted Adrian out of the chair. Adrian went with it, and then stood on his own.
“I don’t need help, I’m not really drunk.” Adrian said.
“If you drank even half of those bottles, you would be drunk buddy.” Alex said coming to his other side.
Adrian pushed them away. “No, really. Iris didn’t let me get drunk.” Adrian said.
His friends looked at each other and then back.
“Iris?” Paul asked.
Adrian nodded. “She had the nanites in my body counteract the alcohol.”
“She can do that?” Alex asked.
“Apparently.” Adrian said, Iris was silent, she had stopped speaking to Adrian an hour ago, when he refused to stop “Wallowing in self-pity” according to her.
“Well, let us walk you home anyway.” Alex said.
Adrian looked at his friends. “You know?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Alex said.
“Tell me that none of the rest know.” Adrian said weakly.
“Sorry buddy.”
“How?”
“It was obvious every time you talked to any of us, you like to talk about Beth. A lot.” Paul said carefully.
“Marcus was the only one that didn’t realize, but then he is a thick headed ass. He figured it out when you went to get the drinks and didn’t come back.” Alex said.
“Fuck.” Adrian said softly.
“I’m sorry Adrian, if we knew about Harry, we would have told you. Ana and Tania only found out yesterday.” Alex said.
Adrian stayed silent, then sighed. “Let’s go.”
The others nodded and walked with him home. He didn’t tell them, but he felt that they knew how much their silence and presence meant to him.
Chapter Fifteen
Olympus city
Tomas was sitting in his office at the palace, reading through the reports they received from Traveler, concerning the alien race Nel. The similarities between the two races was undeniable, but it baffled all of their scientist. According to them there was no way another intelligent race could evolve to look so similar to another. They were already hard pressed to explain the similarities between the Humans and a few other bipedal races they found in the Union database, now the appearance of Nel put all their theories in question. Unless there was in fact a connection between the two races. Tomas ran his hand through his hair in frustration, and leaned back in his chair. He just had no idea in what manner they should proceed. He took the advice of his advisors, and let the situation develop on its own. The destruction of Voyager was still a great factor. They established that these were not the same people as those that attacked Voyager. The ships were different, but that didn’t mean that they were not involved with them somehow. Tomas sighed and closed the report. He went down the list reading other reports and forming appropriate responses. A few hours later he was interrupted by a person entering his office from the direction of his bedroom.
“You could have slept in.” Seo-yun said. She wore only Tomas’s shirt, which made her legs bare. He admired them for a moment and then looked up.
“I couldn’t sleep, too much to do.” Tomas said.
Seo-yun smiled at him walked over to him, she stopped behind his chair and put her hands around his shoulders.
“Now that you are awake, maybe you can clarify something for me.” Tomas said.
“What?” She said.
Tomas accessed the report via his imp, and brought it on his holo desk. “This, you didn’t leave your summary and I don’t understand the science talk.”
Seo-yun leaned down and looked at the report Tomas was talking about.
“Oh. That one.” She pushed off his shoulders and walked around the desk. “I was planning to talk to you about it, it isn’t urgent.”
“Well, you might as well tell me now.” Tomas said.
Seo-yun sighed. “It is about the gene therapy.” She said.
“Are there any problems?” Tomas asked, concerned.
“No, no. At least not in the short run. Or in the long run for that matter.” She said cryptically.
Tomas frowned. “I don’t understand. Is there a problem or isn’t there?”
“Alright, I need to explain a few things first. I know that you trust in me and our scientists, but I need to at least try to explain how it is that we have attained agelessness.”
Tomas nodded for her to proceed.
“What treatment does, in layman’s terms is simple really. It does two things, first, it gives the human body perfect cell regeneration. One of the reasons we aged, is that each time a cell regenerated it wasn’t a 100% but just a bit less. Although people don’t really die of old age, but as the cells regenerate they become weaker and weaker, which in turn makes the human body weaker, more prone to illness. Second thing, is perfect waste removal. Meaning that when our bodies remove waste they remove everything harmful. Another reason humans died of old age earlier than the human body was designed to die was because of slow poisoning. Most everything we use to survive in fact poisons us, the air, the food, the water. It is a very small amount, but over time it accumulates. Now on the other hand our bodies are capable of removing the poisons perfectly. Do you follow?”
“Yes.” Tomas nodded.
“Now the problem is that our bodies regenerate perfectly, and that we pass these abilities to our children.”
“I don’t understand. Isn’t that a good thing?” Tomas asked.
“Perfect regeneration Tomas, that means no mutations. Ever.” Seo-yun said vaguely.
“Mutations? I would hope that we would try to prevent any mutations in our children.” Tomas said frowningly.
Seo-yun sighed. “Mutations are evolution Tomas. We are who we are today because of them. If there are no more mutations in the future, then we have effectively stopped the evolution of mankind. We will never evolve from this point on.”
Tomas looked at her and finally realized the gravity of what she said. No more evolution, in a universe where everything constantly evolved. They would stagnate. It might not matter in the short run, or in the long run as Seo-yun said. But a million years from now, or ten million, they will still be the same, while every other life form in the un
iverse moved on. If they even survived that long. Tomas was by no measure a scientist, but he did go out of his way to learn a few things. Humans were on a certain evolutionary path, constantly changing to adapt to their environment and the way of life. Stopping that evolution would mean that they would lose their ability to adapt over time. They will need to lean on their technology to do that for them.
“Is there anything we can do?” Tomas asked.
“We are already changed, we can’t reverse the treatment, and every newborn after we did this to ourselves inherited it. But a few of my people, the ones who noticed this, did offer possible answer.” Seo-yun said.
“What?”
“Artificial evolution.” Seo-yun said.
Tomas raised an eyebrow, and Seo-yun continued.
“Guided evolution. We enhance ourselves. The agelessness treatment has been really just that, as was the life extension treatment that we had previously. Though with the agelessness we didn’t really think all the aftereffects quite through. But the truth is that we have great knowledge of genetics. It might not seem that way, but our greatest advances are in genetics, and we have mostly achieved them on our own. We have eliminated most diseases and improved our quality of life significantly. We have far surpassed anything we have found in the Union databases. And our knowledge expands constantly. In time we will learn enough to start altering ourselves even more.” Seo-yun said.
“Is that wise? For us to thinker even more?” Tomas asked.
“Perhaps not, but now it is our only choice. We don’t need to do this now of course. But in time, perhaps, it might be the only way for us to survive.” Seo-yun said.
***
Adrian walked through the Olympus city on his way to the space port. Two hours prior he finished with the last of the interviews for the positions on his ship. Now he only needed to decide which people he wanted. The port was outside the city, two hours on foot, and Adrian decided not to take a grav-car. As he walked, he couldn’t help but think back on the events five days ago and his encounter with Bethany. He spent the day after closed up in his room. He refused all comms, and was planning on staying inside the entire second day as well. Until Paul managed to get inside his room. Seeing as Paul didn’t have the codes to enter, the only way he could have, was if someone who knew gave them to him. Which meant that it was Iris that contacted him. She had free access to every piece of technology in Adrian’s home. After Paul arrived, he proceeded to annoy the hell out of Adrian, until he didn’t have any other choice but to get up, clean himself and assent to their wishes and start the interviews. The next three days he spent interviewing personnel for his new ship. The interviews took over his entire day, so he had no time to feel sorry for himself, as Iris liked to say, and by the time he got home he was so exhausted he would immediately fall asleep. Now finished, he needed to get to the shipyard and familiarize himself with the ship. As Adrian left the city boundaries, he looked around. The immediate area outside the city was a grassy plain. The plain where city resided was surrounded by forest, and for the first time Adrian looked around at the nature surrounding him. Before coming to Olympus he was raised in the city, and afterwards in space. He never had a chance of being in the wilderness. Sanctuary was a beautiful world. As he approached the entrance to the forest, he looked up at the great trees. The leaves swaying gently on the wind. It was an awe inspiring sight, he didn’t realize how big they really were. As he entered the forest, following the simple road going through it, he looked around. The inside of the forest was dark, and the wind made a soft whistling sound. Looking around Adrian felt a touch of fear, until he remembered that Sanctuary had no land predators. Well, only one, but they had never attacked humans. Then an image of a great wolion attacking him came to mind. Perhaps I should have taken a grav-car, Adrian though, Would I be the first human ever to be attacked by them?.
He shook himself, and continued walking. The wolion’s had moved away from human settlements, and always chose to run away. He quickened his pace. After a few minutes with no predators jumping out of the bushes to attack him, he relaxed. And then he heard a yowling sound coming deeper from the forest.
Immediately Adrian froze, he wasn’t sure if he imagined the sound or if it was real.
“Iris? Did you hear that?” Adrian asked, Iris could hear everything Adrian could, through his imp.
“Yes.” She said.
Adrian turned, and tried to see if there was anything, but there was nothing. Slowly he started walking again. He didn’t make two steps before he heard the sound again. On the second hearing, he realized that it sounded like a cry of pain. At the realization he hesitated. He knew that there was wildlife around the city, and those were all small animals, herbivores. Humans tried to interfere as little as possible, but from time to time the animals would wander close to the city, some even coming inside. There was no danger to humans, as none of them dangerous. Not even the one predator species they discovered. So Adrian decided to investigate. He set in the direction of the sound, adjusting his path as he heard more yowling. Two minutes later he came upon a shrub beneath one of the trees, surrounded by roots. Below the shrub was a recess in the earth, it looked to Adrian as if it was dug out recently. Confirming his reasoning was the beast lying inside.
“That’s a wolion.” Iris said unnecessarily. Adrian already recognized the animal. It was lying on its side, with its legs pulled protectively around its middle, and its head turned straight towards Adrian. The animal was almost invisible, its blue fur melting into the teal of the bush in the shadows of the forest. Though no one would miss it this close. Its head had a gray streak going between its eyes, meaning that it was a female. The animal was breathing heavily, obviously in pain. Its dark gray eyes were bloodshot, and there was slime around its nostrils. Its great head started to drop, and its eyes slowly started to close. Adrian took a step forward, and immediately the animal raised its head, its eyes opening and started to growl. Adrian froze, he didn’t move for a count of ten, and the wolion again dropped its head. “She is dying.” Adrian told Iris.
“Yes, I don’t think that she has long left.”
Adrian drew closer, the wolion tried to growl again, but it came out only as a gasp. Her breathing intensified as he grew closer.
“She is scared of you Adrian.”
Adrian started making placating sounds. “It’s okay girl. I’m not going to hurt you.” He said as he drew even closer. Two steps and he was close enough to touch her. He extended his hand and touched the wolion’s snout. It tried to move but was too weak. He made circular motions softly patting the animal, until she calmed down. A minute later she stopped trying to move, whether from exhaustion or because she now trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her Adrian didn’t know. He kept stroking her snout, not knowing what to do. They didn’t know anything about wolions, so he didn’t know anyone who could treat her and save her life. And he realized that even if there was, help would come too late. A quick search with his imp and he knew that the veterinarian was on the other side of the city, he would need to come with a grav-car, and even if he started immediately he would still take more than half an hour to get here. And Adrian could see that the animal was on her last stretch, she would die any moment. So he decided that the least he could do was stay there with her until she died. Then he heard another little yelp, and for a moment he thought that it was coming from her, but the second one brought Adrian’s attention to the wolion’s middle, the sound was coming from her middle, behind her limbs. As soon as he realized what that meant, he felt the wolion going stiff. Adrian turned his eyes to hers, he found that she was looking straight at him, studying him. Her eyes were beautiful, even though they were bloodshot. Eerie silver in color, Adrian realized that they had eyes similar to humans, meaning that they had a circular pupil. All four eyes were focusing on Adrian, and Adrian found himself lost in them for a moment. The more he looked, the stranger he felt. In an instant it felt as if he could feel the wolion’s pain, but it passed quickly
. Adrian felt dizzy and a soft pressure built behind his eyes. The wolion moved its legs revealing what it was hiding. And then in the next moment the pressure was gone, as was the wolion. It let out a long breath and died. Adrian looked down at two small creatures, they looked like little puppies, and from the look of them, he knew that they hadn’t been in this world yesterday. They were keening and putting their little paws on their mother, their little snouts hitting her belly. One of them had a little gray streak between her closed eyes. Adrian took off his jacket and reached down, he gathered them in it and lifted the up. They barely weighted anything.
“What are you going to do with them? They can hardly survive without their mother.”
“I’ll figure something out.” Adrian said, already formulating a plan. It would mean he would need to delay his trip, but he could afford a few days. The ship should be finished in a month, until then he will see what he can do for the two little wolions.
Chapter Sixteen
Sanctuary space
The holographic viewscreen showed nothing amiss. The images from outside the science vessel Insight were completely normal, space with the nebula in the background and a small black probe floating there. Small in a relative sense, it was the size of a grav-car.
“Are we ready?” Seo-yun asked.
“All readings are within acceptable parameters.” Luna answered through the speakers.
“Start the generator.” Seo-yun said.
Mia, Seo-yun’s assistant swiped her fingers over the holo screen.
“Field reaching threshold output in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” The image from the outside changed, the probe was suddenly engulfed in purple light waves, and the next moment it was gone.
Everyone on the bridge watched the screen, and a moment later cheers broke out. Seo-yun cut them short by turning to Mia. “Are we receiving anything from the probe?”
“Nothing.” Mia answered.
“Is there debris as last time?” She asked. Mia turned to the screen. “No, there is nothing.”