Skyfall

by Anthony Eaton

Janil spoke again. ‘So mother convinced herself there was a little girl living out there somewhere. Fine. Why did that mean she had to come back here and break protocol?’

  ‘Because she was also convinced that what we know today as the entropy scenario was already happening – that the decline of the cities and our inability to survive outside of them was becoming a real issue, and so she wanted to be ready for when this girl was found.’

  ‘Ready?’ asked Lari.

  ‘She knew we’d need to adopt a combination of genetic analysis, biological comparison, and gradual, peer-driven socialisation to enable us to create a viable, fertile, environmentally resistant gene that might enable us to survive the entropy of the city.’

  ‘Peer-driven socialisation? You’re kidding me!’ Janil looked stunned. ‘She was willing to take that gamble?’

  ‘It wasn’t completely without scientific basis, Janil.’ For the first time he could recall, Lari thought his father sounded defensive. ‘At the very least, she wanted to have a suitable control subject ready in case the girl was found and brought in. And if things worked out the way she expected, then—’

  ‘Then what? She was going to breed them? Produce a mongrel from her little copygen here and a probably non-existent female subject. That was her solution?’

  ‘Don’t be so crude, Janil. She wasn’t planning to breed them. Not as such.’

  ‘But she had every intention of combining their DNA to evolve us back outside.’

  ‘That was only one aspect of it. The girl would have been growing up in a childless, technologically retarded world. She’d need age-appropriate company and we’d need her to have a peer capable of understanding the scientific nuances of the project.’

  ‘Keeping it in the family field, in other words.’

  ‘If you like. But the possibility of DNA splicing was only part of a much larger picture, and the possibility of direct peer-to-peer combination a last-case scenario. Eyna was hoping we’d have time to identify the appropriate proteins and amino acids to stimulate—’

  ‘What in the sky are you talking about!’ Lari’s shout cut them off. His father and brother stopped and Lari caught the awkward glance that flew between them.

  ‘Larinan, you must remember that nobody seriously believed we would end up in the position that we now find ourselves. Not even your mother, if the truth be told.’

  ‘What position?’

  ‘It’s complex …’ Dernan Mann began, but Janil interrupted, his anger replaced with smug humour.

  ‘No, it’s not complex at all, it’s really very simple, copygen.’ There was new venom behind the way Janil spat the word. ‘Mother suspected that the cities were starting to decline and she knew we couldn’t survive outside of them, but luckily for her, she had access to a branch of the human race who could.’

  ‘Darklanders.’

  ‘Exactly. But the problem is that they’re infertile for the most part, so Mother’s master plan was to breed up a new type of human with our fertility and their resistance to the outside environment. Obviously to do that she needed two things – a viable Darklander and a similarly aged, counter-gendered subject from our own world, one who was suitably conditioned to accept without question whatever she told it to do, preferably without thinking too much for itself. Someone in the family field. In short, someone like you. She knew if she found that girl she’d likely have her Darklander, so all she needed—’

  Lari fought back a surge of bile that rose in the back of his throat as he turned on his father. ‘You had me just so she could—’

  ‘Larinan.’ Dernan Mann reached towards his younger son’s shoulder, but Lari slapped his father’s hand away.

  ‘Don’t!’

  ‘I never thought for a moment—’

  ‘You never thought!’ Lari flung himself upright, his chair crashing to the floor. ‘All my life I’ve had to put up with people muttering and staring, just for some … sick …’

  Words deserted him.

  ‘Don’t feel too bad about it, copygen.’ Lari whirled around and found himself staring into Janil’s smirking face. His brother’s eyes, so dark like his own, were crinkled with amusement, clearly enjoying this. ‘For what it’s worth, I’ve always thought of you as more of a sister, anyway.’

  Before he could stop himself, Lari hurled a savage punch at his brother’s face. Janil barely had time for a quick intake of breath before Lari’s fist impacted square on his nose with a loud ‘crack’, and a bright spurt of blood exploded from his nostrils.

  ‘Shi!’

  Janil’s hands flew to his face as he staggered backwards.

  ‘Larinan!’ Their father was coming around from behind his desk and Janil, still swaying, blood streaming from his nose, was regarding his younger brother with a murderous expression.

  ‘You little shi …’

  Without waiting another moment, Lari turned and fled the office.

  The white plain is getting smaller, she can feel it.

  It still seems endless, but it isn’t. She knows.

  And she turns and looks and tries to feel through the skyfire, to where the horizons must be drawing towards her.

  ‘You haven’t got it yet, girl?’

  When the mind brushes against her, it feels so … familiar. She reaches towards it, or at least towards where she thinks it is, but all she feels is the cold burning shiver of the skyfire.

  ‘It’s skyfire, girl. Nightpeople power. You don’t just draw it up like you pull in earthwarmth. You gotta beat it down, hold it back, you gotta let it know you’re the boss.’

  ‘Who are you? Where are you?’ The words are gone before she can voice them. She’s asking nobody.

  ‘Ride it, girl. Saria. Ride the skyfire …’

  ‘You shouldn’t have said that, Janil.’

  Dernan Mann handed his eldest son a cloth and watched as Janil pressed it to his streaming nose.

  ‘I shouldn’t have … Did you see what he just did?’

  ‘I saw. But this has been coming for years. You’ve been pushing your brother since the day he was born. I’m surprised it’s taken him this long to push back.’

  Janil dabbed gingerly at his bloodied nose.

  ‘It’s true, though, what I said,’ he muttered, unable to keep the resentment out of his voice.

  ‘About your mother and I breaking protocol so we could crossbreed him?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘As a matter of fact, that’s not accurate either.’

  ‘Really? So he wasn’t born as some kind of contemporary control subject to use in conjunction with 45698F then? You’re saying it’s pure coincidence you and Mother decided to have a second son at the same time as she was chasing that girl all over the Darklands?’

  ‘That’s not what I’m talking about, Janil. You know as well as I do that the most effective way to combine the genetic adaptations of the two species will be through slow, scientific gene-mapping of both him and the girl. Compare and contrast, Janil. That’s the only way we’ll ever identify the correct embryotic adaptations to produce a human viable for the outside environment. Making your brother believe that we’re simply going to … breed them was not only cruel but also scientifically irresponsible.’

  ‘I don’t see why. It’s as valid an approach as what you’re proposing, and probably a whole lot faster, too.’

  Dernan Mann shook his head. ‘Don’t you think we haven’t already considered straight-out cross-fertilisation?’

  Janil momentarily forgot about his bleeding nose. ‘What’s wrong with the idea?’

  Dernan sighed. This was what he’d been hoping to avoid.

  ‘It comes with an unacceptable level of risk. Especially given that we can’t afford to endanger the one subject we have available to us.’

  ‘What risk?’

  ‘I told you. Unacceptable risk.’

  ‘No.’ Janil shook his head. ‘I’m not buying it. It seems to me that the most straightforward method of combining the genetic makeup of tw
o complementary species is to simply cross-breed them. This is the first time you’ve ever mentioned risk.’

  ‘This is the first time the topic has come up.’

  ‘So how do you know there’s a risk then? All her tests are clear. She’s healthy, fit, fertile …’

  ‘Listen, son, I need you to simply trust me on this.’

  ‘Father, in the six years that I’ve been working in DGAP, you’ve never once asked me to take something simply on trust. Never. And now, when we’re discussing possibly the most important genetic experiment this department has ever been called upon to conduct, you’re suggesting we should completely overlook the approach most likely to yield a successful result? And you’re asking me to do this based solely on trust? Without any scientific basis whatsoever? Either you’ve gone completely insane or there’s something you’re not telling me. Which is it?’

  Dernan Mann studied the crust of dried blood that clung to Janil’s chin and lower lip.

  ‘It’s already been tried.’

  Janil’s brow furrowed. ‘What has?’

  ‘Straight-out cross-fertilisation of a Darkland woman with a Port citizen.’

  ‘When? How?’

  ‘I’ll show you.’

  Dernan Mann punched a couple of commands into his interface and another archived recording appeared on the terminal.

  ‘This is security footage recorded at ground level about twelve years ago.’

  The screen showed a dull forecourt, dirty and heavily shadowed. A flyer crouched across on the far side, its hatch hanging open. On the recording, the soft hiss of maglift doors opening echoed around the empty square and then two figures stepped into view from directly below the camera. One was wearing a flight suit, his features masked behind the reflective helmet. The other was a young, heavily pregnant female, little more than a girl.

  ‘Here. This way.’

  With his gloved hand on her arm, the man helped the pregnant girl take a few steps out into the forecourt.

  Suddenly, the girl stopped, frozen still for a few seconds before her legs buckled under her. Only quick action by the man saved her from falling. He slung both arms around her from behind and, half-supporting her, he dragged her towards the flyer.

  ‘Come on. This way …’ There was panic in his voice now, and the girl started to struggle.

  ‘No …’

  ‘It’s okay. Come. Please. We don’t have much time …’

  Janil watched the grainy screen as the woman kicked and struggled ineffectually. Dernan Mann, in turn, studied his son’s face. There was no need for him to look at the screen. He’d watched this footage so often he knew it by heart.

  ‘Not that…’

  ‘Please!’

  The two of them were not halfway across the forecourt to the flyer when the maglift doors hissed open again.

  ‘You there! Stop right where you are!’

  On the screen, the pilot released the girl and simply pulled at her forearm in desperation, tugging in silent hopelessness towards the flyer, which might as well have been a million kilometres away.

  ‘You won’t get another chance!’

  There were two white bursts from below the camera and for a moment the image flared into nothingness while the light filters adjusted. As it slowly resolved, the pilot and the girl could be seen lying where they had fallen. The two figures standing over them were wearing helmets and exposure suits adorned with the blue markings and flashes of security division.

  ‘Vitals?’

  One agent was kneeling to check the two bodies.

  ‘Both alive. Distressed though.’

  The other, the shorter of the two, hesitated a moment then threw a savage kick into the ribs of the prone pilot.

  ‘Stupid Shi. Get his helmet off.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard me.’

  ‘Jenx …’

  ‘Don’t argue. Just do what you’re told.’

  The kneeling agent glanced at a readout strapped to the wrist of his suit.

  ‘The exposure levels here are close to critical and he’s not even conscious. He’ll…’

  ‘I won’t ask again.’ As he spoke, the one named Jenx felt for a round object clipped to his webbing. ‘Take it off.’

  For a long moment there was nothing but silence between them. Then the first security agent stood up and faced his partner.

  ‘Do it yourself. I won’t turn anyone into a shiftie. Even Kravanratz.’

  The two men squared up, toe to toe, motionless for several seconds, before finally Jenx backed down.

  ‘Fine. But you’ll answer to the Prelate for this.’

  ‘Whatever.’

  The taller agent turned on his heel and took a few steps away, peering into the distant heights of the skycity.

  ‘Imagine having to live down here, eh? How’d you be?’

  Jenx didn’t answer. He knelt and fumbled with the seals at the throat of the unconscious man’s field suit. He tugged at the helmet and slipped it off the unconscious man’s head, revealing a young, rugged face. Immediately, somewhere inside the suit, a wristband started chiming.

  ‘That should teach him a lesson. Now grab the girl and let’s …’

  Jenx never finished his sentence. At that moment, a dull explosion coughed from somewhere in the shadows and his partner’s chest burst open. The screen was suddenly filled with dancing shadows, dark and malicious, flitting around the edges of the camera’s field of view.

  Jenx pulled the disc from his belt and waved it at one of the shapes, but the only response it drew was a sneering laugh and another soft explosion. Then the image trembled slightly as something slammed into the wall on which the camera was mounted, and Jenx was backing up, retreating to the maglift, leaving his partner lying where he’d fallen.

  There was another bang, louder than the others, and the screen went blank.

  ‘What was that?’ Janil turned to his father, who’d watched the whole recording in silence.

  ‘That, in my opinion, was the day the entropy scenario started to accelerate, Janil. That day we lost the subject we thought would be our last.’

  ‘The girl?’

  Dernan Mann nodded. ‘Subject 45697F, the mother of the girl currently lying in the exposure chamber. What you’ve been watching happened about twenty-six months after we brought her in.’

  ‘She was pregnant.’

  ‘That’s right. And that’s how we know that the risk level is unacceptable. I’ve tried it already.’

  ‘You impregnated her?’

  ‘The father was a field agent. Polish extraction, good work record, reproductively viable and unmarried.’

  ‘So what’s the risk, then? She looked fine to me. Pregnant and all.’

  ‘Getting her pregnant wasn’t the problem. Keeping her that way was. Right from the start her pregnancy was plagued with complications. By the time that footage was taken, with only a few weeks until the predicted birthdate, we had real problems.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘The Darklanders have evolved away from us, Janil. While we’ve been sitting in our skycities getting larger and healthier, feeding ourselves with protein supps and enriched vitamins, they’ve been evolving the other way – becoming smaller and lighter. Less muscle and fatty tissue means less water requirement.’

  ‘I know all this, Father. It’s basic biological history.’

  ‘It’s also the reason why natural pregnancy is far too risky, as it certainly was in the case of that girl in the footage there. Impregnating her from a DGAP partner was the biggest mistake we could have made, but we – your mother and I – were so excited at the possibility of creating a fertile human who was also externally resistant that we didn’t consider all the implications. Once she was pregnant we realised what a terrible error of judgement we’d made.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘For one thing, the child was too big. Giving birth would have killed the subject.’

  ‘That shouldn’t have been a problem.
You could have removed it with C-meth.’

  ‘Your mother didn’t think so. It looked doubtful that the girl would even survive to term. That child was pushing everything else out of place, literally tearing her up from inside. By the time that footage was taken, she could barely breathe from the pressure on her diaphragm.’

  ‘Why didn’t you just bring it out prem?’

  ‘We were planning to. Neither mother nor baby were healthy and their chances of survival were probably close to nil, but we were hoping to save either one or the other. Preferably the child. Sadly though, we never got a chance.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Kravanratz. The father. He was one of the field agents who helped recover the girl in the first place and he’d been central to the whole project, but he let it get to him. Let himself become … emotionally involved. He believed that the girl was strong enough to have the child and survive, despite all evidence to the contrary.’

  ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

  ‘You just saw it with your own eyes, Janil. He took her. Stole her out of DGAP and tried to get her out of the city. Sky knows what he planned to do once he got her to that flyer, but, as you saw, security caught him before they got off the ground. He botched his lift logs and they were after him almost the moment he magged out of DGAP.’

  ‘And they killed him?’

  Dernan Mann shrugged. ‘We don’t know. The security agents were attacked before they managed to complete their recovery. We suspect that a shiftie clan found the flyer earlier and were waiting to see who came for it. Jenx – the same man who now heads up the Prelate’s security division, by the way – managed to get back to the maglift, but only just. By the time he returned with support, the shifties had vanished and so had the bodies.’

  ‘You didn’t search for them?’

  ‘Of course we did. Security just about tore the underworld apart trying to find them. But it’s a nightmare down there, Janil. If somebody doesn’t want to be found in the old city, the chances of locating them are nil.’

  Dernan Mann watched as Janil leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face, his nose all but forgotten.

  ‘So it’s possible that somewhere down there, even now, is a fully viable outsider. The answer to all our problems.’