The Prelate allowed him to lead, and Jenx trailed behind. In the chamber the girl was asleep, the lighting dimmed to evening levels. Without speaking, the Prelate crossed to the large windows and stared down.
‘So tiny, isn’t she? Such a tiny package to carry so much importance.’
‘Most of the subjects are smaller than we are, Madam Prelate. Their bone density and musculature is markedly—’
‘Spare me, Doctor.’ The Prelate held up a hand. ‘While I’m certain it’s fascinating, I’m afraid we didn’t come here for a lesson in Darklander physiology. We have other … matters … to discuss.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Not at all. Don’t apologise for things that you have no control over, Janil. It only makes you seem weak.’
The Prelate turned away from the windows and looked directly at him.
‘Now tell me honestly, Janil. Are we making progress?’
‘It’s too early to say. We have to systematically work through the subject’s genetic makeup and consider—’
‘Janil.’ The Prelate’s voice was cool. ‘Honestly!
For a long moment the only sound was the chime of the girl’s monitor and the amplified echo of her breathing.
‘No,’ Janil finally said. ‘No progress at all.’
The old woman nodded. ‘I suspected this would be the case.’
‘But it really is far too early to tell,’ Janil insisted. ‘When we get further down the track we should be able to isolate the appropriate variations in the protein strands and—’
‘Sadly, Doctor Mann, time is the one thing we are running short of right now.’ Janil fell silent and the Prelate turned back to the window, studying the girl again. ‘You know, I was most impressed by your entropy report, Janil. Most impressed indeed. I did read it, you know. Several times, in fact. Very, very carefully.’
‘But I thought you said—’
‘I said it wasn’t to be discussed and that it’s not official city policy, and I stand by that judgement. That doesn’t mean I’m not paying it a great deal of attention.’
Now Jenx stepped forward, and the Prelate nodded.
‘Doctor Mann …’ His tone was carefully neutral. ‘First, it’s very important that you realise that the Prelate and I aren’t here this evening in any official capacity. As far as we’re concerned, your father is still the head of research here at DGAP and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Do you understand that?’
‘Of course …’
‘Stability, Janil,’ the Prelate interjected. ‘That has to be the main goal of any government. Even the old western democracies, flawed though they were, realised the value of stability. It’s what keeps a population happy, passive and productive.’
‘And that’s why, obviously, we can’t allow the development of anything which might contribute to the destabilisation of governance in our city,’ said Jenx. ‘You understand that, don’t you?’
Janil regarded the small man coldly. ‘I’m not an idiot.’
‘Of course not.’ The Prelate spoke placatingly. ‘But it’s important you understand our priorities here. We’ve built a precariously balanced society, Janil. One which succeeds only because of stability: stability of population, of gender, of communication, of thought. Anything – any idea, movement or project – which doesn’t contribute to the overall stability of life in Port City is therefore a risk to us all. But of course you understand that, don’t you? It’s implicit in everything you reported in your findings on the entropy scenario.’
‘With respect, Madam Prelate, you’re not suggesting that this project is … What we’re looking for here is stability. Genetic stability. That’s the whole point of what we’re trying to achieve …’
‘Don’t get upset, Doctor Mann. What concerns us isn’t the goals of your project but the implications of it. Why do we so desperately require this genetic re-coding in the first place?’
‘Because of the entropy scenario. Unless we can adapt to the outside—’
‘We’re doomed. Precisely my point. The very existence of this project is a clear indicator that all is not stable here in Port City. And that’s an unacceptable risk.’
‘More unacceptable than the prospect of complete extinction?’
‘Humans are resourceful creatures, Doctor. There’s always going to be some hope, but not if we destroy ourselves in a frenzy of panic before we find an acceptable – and stable – solution to our problems. And my feeling is that this project, sadly, has the potential to trigger that panic.’
‘But you could apply that argument to any attempt to overcome the scenario.’
‘That doesn’t make my point any less valid, Janil. In fact, if we had more than just this one shot on which to pin our hopes the risk to our ongoing stability wouldn’t be so great. But we don’t, do we?’
When Janil offered no response, the Prelate continued.
‘We don’t want to be seen to be narrowing all our options to just this one course of action.’ The Prelate touched Janil’s forearm, a concilatory gesture. ‘And that’s the reason for our visit tonight, Janil. We’re concerned that your father is losing his objectivity where this project is concerned. That he’s become too emotionally invested in it.’
Her words echoed around obs.
‘My father has always had the best interests of DGAP at heart.’
‘Nobody would deny that for a moment. Your mother had too. But the thing is, Janil, we need someone in this project who has the best interests of the citizens of Port City as their central concern, not just DGAP’
‘What are you asking?’
Jenx and the Prelate made brief eye contact and it was the security agent who answered.
‘For the moment, Janil, nothing. All we want is for you to be our eyes and ears – to keep us informed of any developments, or the lack thereof. And if it reaches a point where this particular project could become destabilising, we’d like to know early, so that we can intervene.’
‘Destabilising?’
‘There are rumblings in the lower levels, Janil. More than just the usual shiftie discontent. Today’s little display here in Central was just the beginning of much bigger things to come – as you predicted in your report, I might add.’
‘What of it? I don’t see what that’s got to do with our work here.’
‘It’s got everything, Janil. The Underground are trying to stir things up, trying to create fear, terror, get people around to their way of thinking. To upset the stability that has kept this city functioning for a thousand years. Knowing what that girl down there represents could be just the trigger they need. If they were to get even the slightest hint of her existence, let alone the implications of it for the wider community …’
In a moment of clarity, Janil realised what the security chief was asking him.
‘If that happens, you’d want to … terminate this project, wouldn’t you?’
A long silence filled the room. Finally the Prelate answered.
‘We’d ask you to do what was best for the city, Janil. Your father is, as we say, no longer objective. You’re our only reliable source of judgement here now. Can we trust you?’
Janil glanced down through the windows. In the white room the girl stirred slightly in her sleep. Janil rubbed gingerly at his throbbing nose. Then he turned back and looked the Prelate directly in the eye.
‘Of course,’ he said.
‘Port North Central, DGAP hub. Also authorising Mann, Larinan to same destination.’
The reader chimed and Lari followed his father to the maglift waiting area, the two of them attracting more than the usual number of sideways glances from their fellow commuters. Fortunately, his father’s priority level meant that the wait was less than two minutes. They shared the lift with five or six other DGAP scientists, and most of the ride was spent in silence until they were getting close to their destination, when his father spoke in a low murmur.
‘Did you manage to get any sleep at all last night,
Larinan?’
‘A little.’
‘Good. You’ll need your energy today.’
‘Why?’
‘Have you had a think about what I said last night?’
‘What about it?’
‘It’s time to make a decision, Larinan. Now you know what Janil and I are hoping to achieve, you need to decide, once and for all, whether you’re in or out.’
‘I thought I didn’t have a choice.’
‘There’s always a choice. I can force your placement at DGAP, but I can’t force you to help us. If we’re going to have any chance of achieving our goals, I need you on board of your own free will.’
‘What about Janil?’
‘He’ll cope. Your brother is nothing if not pragmatic, and deep inside he knows you’re as valuable to us now as that girl.’
The only sound in the lift was the whine of the resonators and the quiet babble of the newspanel. Lari watched it absently, his mind a million miles away from the report currently screening, which was attributing the explosions in Port North Central the previous day to faulty power capacitors.
‘Larinan?’ his father prompted.
Lari thought about his mother. She’d died for this. For him. His life was her legacy, whether he liked it or not. Besides, there was no point hating a ghost. There were already enough people in his family who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – get out from under his mother’s shadow.
‘Fine. I’m in.’
A rare smile crinkled at the edges of Dernan Mann’s eyes.
‘Good lad.’ The maglift switched to vertical and climbed towards the DGAP hub. ‘Now we can get to work.’
Janil was waiting in the research office. ‘About time you two arrived.’
His brother’s nose was bright red and slightly twisted. Lari had to stifle a grin.
‘What’s so funny, copygen?’
‘Nothing.’
Janil’s eyes narrowed. ‘You got in a lucky shot yesterday, little brother. Try it again and see what happens, eh?’
‘That’ll do.’ Back in the surrounds of DGAP, Dernan Mann reverted back to his usual authoritarian self. ‘Larinan has decided to assist us properly, so I think it’s high time we got to work. Proper work.’
‘What do you have in mind?’
‘I think we should make contact.’
‘Face to face?’
‘Within reason. But we need to try and reach her before she becomes overly traumatised.’
Janil turned and pulled up a couple of screens on his terminal.
‘She’s been cleared by the quarantine scans – she’s free of all major viral and bacterial infections. Her respiratory and digestive systems are functioning within acceptable parameters. Brain activity is minimal, but she’s been kept tranqued since we brought her in, so that means nothing. Should I start bringing her round?’
‘I think so. Drop the sedative out and let’s go pay her a visit.’
Janil punched in several commands. ‘Done.’
The three of them made their way to obs.
‘She’ll be disoriented and scared. Don’t let it get to you, okay?’ Janil said. ‘Just try and keep a scientific outlook, whatever happens.’
Lari ignored him and went across to the window. Already the girl was stirring. Once again, Lari was struck by how small she seemed, how vulnerable. In the harsh white light she looked alien, as her thin, dark limbs started to twitch.
‘It’ll take a few minutes until the sedative wears off completely, and there might be some side effects.’
‘Like what?’ Lari asked.
‘Vomiting, mild diarrhoea. Depends on the subject.’
‘How many subjects have woken up down there?’
Janil glanced at his father before replying.
‘Not many. Not in our lifetime, anyway. A few.’
‘How many exactly?’
‘We couldn’t say offhand, Larinan. We’d have to look it up.’
The girl was definitely awake now, slowly stretching and twitching as feeling returned to her limbs. Lari watched as she slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, drawing her knees and legs under her until she was crouching on the podium. Groaning, she held a hand to her head as she shielded her eyes from the intense light.
‘She’s in pain.’
‘It’s normal. Adjustment takes some time.’
‘Can’t we dim the lights and make it more comfortable for her?’
‘No. The lighting is designed to simulate natural light levels in the field. If we drop them it defeats the purpose of bringing her in.’
‘A few minutes isn’t going to make any difference.’
‘Neither will dropping the lights,’ Janil snapped. ‘She’s just come out of several days of induced coma. She’s going to have a headache no matter what we do.’
Below, the girl groaned again and muttered softly.
‘What did she say?’ his father asked. ‘Did you get it, Janil?’
‘No. She’s still half asleep, it could be anything.’
‘She said “Jani”,’ Lari told them quietly, remembering the unconscious girl being dragged from her hut on the vid.
‘Of course! Well spotted, Larinan.’
‘She wants her mother.’
‘Don’t we all?’ Janil snapped peevishly, provoking an uncomfortable silence.
In the white room the girl lifted her head and, still shielding her eyes, looked around, taking in the bare white walls and the high ceiling.
‘Do you think she realises we’re watching?’ Lari asked.
‘Who knows?’ Janil answered. ‘I doubt it, given their reasoning skills.’
‘So she thinks she’s alone.’
Hello?
Through the pickup loop, the girl’s voice sounded distant, as though she was calling from a long way off over a bad comlink.
Hello?
‘So, what do you think?’ Janil turned to his father. ‘Time to suit up?’
‘Yes.’ Dernan Mann nodded. ‘But not you, Janil. Larinan.’
‘What!’
‘He’s the closest to her age. He’ll be less threatening. We want this girl to trust us and Larinan has the best chance of achieving that.’
‘He hasn’t been trained in field protocols. He’s never been in a closed suit.’
‘She’s a Darklander, Janil. And a child. She’s never seen someone her own age, so at least Larinan will have curiosity working for him.’
‘This is a huge mistake, Father.’
‘Janil, I know you think this should be your role, and a week ago it would have been. But things have changed. We’re going to need Lari and this girl to work together, so it should be him that makes the initial contact.’
‘We don’t need them to work together. We just need their DNA to align in the right places.’
‘No, Janil. We need more than that from her. We need her knowledge. Being able to survive out there is no good to us if we don’t know how to. And as it will most likely fall to Larinan to eventually apply what we learn, it would be best if he forms a connection with her from the outset.’
Janil returned his stare to the girl. ‘It’s not fair,’ he muttered.
Lari thought he sounded like a four-year-old child, but when their father spoke his voice was soft, almost regretful.
‘I know it’s not fair, son. I know you’re the one who’s given your whole life to this project and Larinan hasn’t. I can understand how that must hurt. But the entropy scenario is accelerating already. We saw that yesterday. And if it’s accelerating, then we have to move our plans forward, too, faster than we’d intended. And that means desperate measures.’
‘Yesterday?’ Lari interjected. ‘What about yesterday?’
‘You should know, copygen! You were in the middle of it, you little shi.’
‘That’s unfair, Janil.’
‘What do the explosions have to do with anything? They said it was the power capacitors—’
‘Yeah. And the webs are such re
liable sources of information.’
‘Then what? You think the explosions were deliberate?’
Janil snorted. ‘No. I’m saying it was the first catastrophic accident in a thousand years and it just happened with no warning, with no cascade of minor events preceding it. Use your brain.’
Lari stared at his brother. Even at his worst, he’d never seen Janil this bitter.
‘Anyway,’ Janil continued, ‘deliberate or not, it makes no difference.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because either way, the explosions are symptoms of the system breaking down. If they were caused by overloaded capacitors then it’s just like the breakdowns in the minor systems, only more extreme and probably the first of many to come.’
‘And if they were deliberate?’
‘That’s worse. That’s social breakdown. That’s the race starting to consume itself, and in a society as delicately balanced as ours that’s a surefire way to disaster. Just that one event yesterday will have disrupted the stability of the city in fundamental ways that we have no idea about yet.’
‘How?’
‘Do you think equal numbers of men and women died in those explosions? Of course not. Nor people from the same age demographics. So right away the gender and age ratios of the largest dome in the North Port City are out of balance. Sure, it’s only one dome out of thousands, but what about the next one? And the one after that? It’ll add up, and how’s the Prelature going to deal with it then? Change the reproduction laws that have kept things stable for a millennium? Make exemptions? We all know how well that works out. Do that and before you know it you’ll have jealousy, resentment, riots. No, copygen, what happened yesterday is just the beginning. Even though you probably don’t believe a word I say, you can trust me on that.’
With a sigh, Janil leaned his forehead against the cold clearcrete window and stared down again at the girl, who was still crouched in a small ball in the middle of her sleeping platform, rocking slightly. For a long time nobody spoke, until Janil finally turned back to Lari and their father.
‘And that, of course, is why you’re right, Father. You don’t have to say it.’
‘I wasn’t going to. Will you suit Larinan up and take him through the appropriate protocols?’
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