Athena's Choice

by Adam Boostrom

  “Thank you, officer,” replied Prim. “I’m not used to meddling in other people’s affairs like this. It feels wrong to me.”

  Valerie exhaled deeply. She longed to activate her lenses so that she could message an “eye-roll” emoji to Athena’s display.

  “Well, what if you just start at the beginning,” suggested Athena. “The beginning of whatever it is you need to tell us.”

  Prim leaned forward in her chair. “The beginning? Huh…In the beginning, there was Project Lazarus. I don't know if the two of you have any idea what it was like to be a genomic scientist back then, but that project was everything. We all wanted it. The fame, the prestige. Getting a chance to build the Lazarus Genome was the opportunity of a lifetime.

  “Back then, I thought my lab had a good chance to win the government contract to construct it. As it later turned out, we were never even considered. Most people think of Dr. Antares as a nurturing, altruistic figure. The truth is; she’s anything but. She has powerful political connections which she’s not afraid to use. When Project Lazarus was first announced, she pulled strings in the Senate to make sure that her lab would be the only one ever sanctioned to do the work. I learned all of this, months too late of course, from a close friend in Congress.”

  Prim climbed out of her chair. She began to pace nervously around the room. Her hands waved dramatically into the air as she spoke. “That all happened almost five years ago. Now maybe that doesn’t seem like a long time to you, but when my team submitted our proposal to build the genome, we estimated it would take us only two years, at most, to complete it — and that was with half the resources that are available to Dr. Antares.”

  Prim gulped. “Then, just last week, my congressional friend told me, off the record, that I should put another bid together. She said my team and I might have a shot at winning the Lazarus contract after all. She said the constant delays at Helix are causing many Congresswomen to lose patience with Dr. Antares. They’ve had it with her unending excuses.”

  Prim stopped pacing and, for the first time since she began her monologue, looked directly at Valerie and Athena. “So when the news reached me that the incomplete Lazarus Genome had been ‘stolen,’ you can understand my reaction: disbelief.”

  “Wait,” interjected Athena. “Are you saying that Grace — I mean, Dr. Antares — pretended to steal her own genome to cover up the fact that she couldn’t complete it on time?”

  “I'm saying,” replied Prim, “that something doesn’t add up here. That woman lost a nonviable genome at the exact moment that her lab was about to have the contract stripped away? That’s quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?” Prim collapsed back into one of the overgrown chairs and let go of the remaining breath from her lungs.

  Revealing nothing in her expression, Captain Bell replied: “We met with Dr. Antares two days ago, and without a doubt, that woman is hiding something. However, I have a hard time believing it’s as simple as you say. Frankly, Dr. Nagaraj, there are other factors at work here. This theft, it turns out, is bigger than just a small act of fraud to cover up for some scientific-incompetence. The crime is connected to another, one that goes back decades. Whoever stole the genome has spent years deleting national history records from all over the world.” Valerie took a long pause to think. “I'm not sure where your new piece of information fits.”

  Internally, Athena fought hard against the suggestion that her idol might instead be a fraud. “How do we know we can trust you?” she asked. “How do we know you're not just making all this up?”

  “I can’t tell you the name of my Congressional friend,” replied Prim, “if that’s what you're asking. But you’re Public Safety. I’m sure you can verify everything I’ve told you.”

  “Yes, yes,” agreed Valerie knowingly. “I’m sure that we can.” She stood up from her seat on the couch. “Thank you, Dr. Nagaraj, for coming forward with this information. You’re an example of model citizenry.”

  Prim blushed.

  Remaining on the couch, Athena felt the tension in her jaw spike. “Excuse me, doctor, but why would Grace ‘pull strings’ to get the project, if she couldn’t even complete it? That doesn't make sense. Why wouldn’t she just ask for help if she was having trouble?”

  “I have no idea, officer,” replied Dr. Nagaraj. Her eyes widened. “I've been trying to figure that part out myself.”

  Valerie reached over and grabbed Athena by the wrist. Her firm grasp seemed to say, Let it go. “Thank you again, doctor,” the captain announced. “We can show ourselves out.”

  Amelia Earhart Middle School

  from: Assistant Principle Myers

  to: Noreen James

  sent: September 4th, 2094

  subject: Please Come Pick Up Your Daughter

  Dear Ms. James,

  Please come pick up Nomi early from school today. She is guilty of causing a scene in third period when she started screaming at Ms. Kennedy, “Down with the bourgeoisie dictatorship!” and “The proletariat will never stand for this.”

  Please also inform your daughter — as we’ve tried to tell her many times ourselves — that Ms. Kennedy’s cooking class: “Desserts and Fine Pastries” is a completely optional elective. If she so chooses, Nomi may drop the course at any time.

  We apologize for any inconvenience this notice may have caused you.

  Sincerely,

  Assistant Principle Myers

  June 11, 2099

  33

  On the hyper-loop trip back to Chicago, Athena continued to wrestle with Dr. Nagaraj’s damning accusation. “There has to be a reason for this,” she announced. “We need to go back to Helix. We need to ask Grace what's going on. I'm sure she has an explanation for it. For everything.”

  “Yes…” mused Valerie, absent-mindedly. She tapped her finger against her seat’s arm rest. “I'm sure that she does…”

  For the rest of the return journey, Captain Bell sat quietly, checking messages and thinking. As for Athena, she spied on two other women, seated nearby, who were buzzing to pass the time. She watched the patterns of their squirms and tried to guess if the program they were using was one of Nomi’s.

  Outside the window, high-speed, 3D advertisements for “Lunar Liftoff” whirred by with spectacular effect.

  Only twenty kilometers away from Chicago, Valerie began to laugh out loud. “Haha,” she said, “You’re not going to believe this, but it looks like you’re going to get your wish.”

  “Wish?” Athena blurted. “What wish?”

  “We…” the captain slowly announced, “have just been invited back to Helix. Dr. Antares has requested an audience with us at once.” Captain Bell raised both of her thick black eyebrows to highlight the pending intrigue. “And that's not all. The good doctor has also insisted, under her rights as a citizen of the NAU, that our entire conversation take place off the record.”

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  June 11, 2099

  34

  Seeded clouds shrouded the afternoon sun as Valerie and Athena headed back to Helix for the third time in as many days. A food-delivery drone met them on top of the Chicago hyper-loop platform. They took their tuna salad sandwiches to go. As the last few bites of crust slid down their throats, they found themselves already back in the shadow of the massive spiral-ribbon of a building.
>
  On the fourth floor, Valerie and Athena found Grace waiting behind her desk. She wore a pink sweater and black pants underneath a white laboratory coat. Her blue-lapis Helix pendant hung around her neck. Her long white ponytail lay tossed over her right shoulder. Absent from her face was any hint of the smile which had greeted them on their first visit.

  “Captain Bell…” the doctor began, accusingly, “I received word this morning of your intention to ransack my lab with your invasive searches.”

  “Dr. Antares…” the captain rebuffed, “Your lab’s secrecy and un-helpfulness in this investigation have left me with little choice.”

  The two women locked eyes like competing lionesses.

  Grace cleared her throat. “What’s more, my sources tell me that you met with Prim Nagaraj this morning.”

  Neither Valerie nor Athena reacted in any way.

  Grace continued. “I'll take your silence as a tacit acknowledgement then. I assume that woman told you that we have orchestrated this whole charade of a theft in order to cover up our own failure to produce a viable Lazarus Genome? Yes?”

  Again, Valerie and Athena gave no reaction.

  “Right. Then it’s just as I thought.” Grace pushed herself away from her desk. “That woman is as predictable as she is annoying.” The doctor walked toward the exit. “Officers, what if I showed you something that could put those rumors of failure to bed? Would that count in your eyes as being helpful? Would that get you to drop this invasive, unlimited search-warrant of yours?”

  Cooly, Valerie replied: “I guess it would depend on what you showed us.”

  “Of course,” Grace agreed. “Please follow me.”

  The three ladies left Dr. Antares’ office. They made their way into an elevator, and then down a series of unmarked corridors. At one intersection, Grace air-clicked, causing the plastic floor to melt away into a sloping ramp. The ramp led to a separate, secret floor in between the other floors of the building.

  Suddenly, the loud clacking of black boots closed in from behind. Dr. Kirilov brought the entire party to a stop. With her stare, she tried to set Grace’s face on fire. “Dr. Antares,” she demanded with an overly-forced politeness, “May I have a word with you?”

  Grace turned to her Public Safety companions, “Please, if you would, excuse me for a second.”

  The two doctors headed away from the sloping hallway — far enough so that their conversation would not be overheard. They turned their backs so that their lips could not be read.

  Athena may not have been able to decipher what was being said, but she could easily tell that both women were becoming worked up in the discussion. They whisper-argued, and at times, their squabble devolved into full-fledged bickering. In those moments, Athena could make out tiny snippets of conversation.

  Eve: “You cannot show them…!” inaudible mumblings.

  Grace: “If you hadn’t…” long inaudible pause, “…none of this would be necessary!”

  Following the argument, Eve stormed off in the opposite direction. Grace returned to the group, her cheeks flushed. “Thank you for your patience, officers,” she said. “Please follow me.”

  Down the sloping corridor they walked until the floor leveled out again. Grace air-clicked, and the sloping hallway over which they had just traversed rose up again to become a ceiling. They walked into the vacant space created by the ramp's departure and down a secret hallway containing three doors.

  Abruptly, Grace stopped and turned to face both Valerie and Athena. “What I have to show you must not leave this building,” she commanded. With two fingers she gestured in the shape of a cross. The first of the three doors flung open.

  Captain Bell could not stop her jaw from dropping. Athena’s heart missed three beats. For the first time in either of their lives, they stood before a living, breathing man.

  Quickly, Dr. Antares ushered everyone into the room and closed the door behind them. Before the group, on a bed with white sheets and white pillows, lay ‘Lazarus’ in all his glory. He was naked from head to toe and had several intravenous tubes lining his arms. His adult body looked lean and muscular. Course stubble covered his jaw. His fingertips and head twitched slightly, like a fetus in utero. His eyes were shut, but busy, as if his mind were in the middle of a vivid dream.

  Athena remained mesmerized and could not speak. Valerie became the first to regain some measure of composure. “Well, now we know what you were hiding here,” she murmured in disbelief. “But doctor…this body is over twenty years old. Project Lazarus is less than five. What’s been going on here?”

  Oblivious, Athena uttered, “How?…How is this possible?”

  “The Y-Fever,” explained Grace, “is not the greatest impediment to the return of men. There are matters at stake here which are more severe than either of you realize.” Her expression was firmly grave. “Please trust that we are not sabotaging our own work, and allow us the privacy we need to finish it.”

  “How…is…this…possible?” repeated Athena. Slowly, her body recovered from its state of total shock. Her eyes travelled up and down the man, stopping to linger on all the ways in which his body differed from hers. His chest appeared broad and stout, his jaw square, his arms taut and sinewy. She reached out her hand, longing to trace her finger along the ridges of his abdominal muscles, to the sharp diagonal line which ran from the edge of his stomach, across the top of his thigh, to his uncovered groin.

  “Who else knows about this?” asked Valerie.

  “Dr. Kirilov and myself are the only two people aware,” Grace replied. “That’s it.”

  “You’ve had the genome for decades,” said Athena, still almost catatonic, her gaze upon the man unbroken. “Why haven’t you told anyone?”

  “Please, officers,” pleaded Grace. “Do not ask me to discuss any of this further. We plan to announce our completion of the project as soon as we feel it is safe. I cannot…I must not reveal any mo—”

  “He’s dreaming,” interrupted Athena. “Why is he dreaming?”

  “We keep the subjects engaged in virtual simulations twenty-four hours a day,” answered Grace.

  “The subjects?” Valerie blurted out. “Plural?”

  “There are three male test subjects. One in each of the adjoining rooms. The data from their neurological responses to the virtual-dream-sims we feed them is sent upstairs to a computer accessible only to myself and to Eve.”

  Athena approached the man and grazed her finger along the sandpapery texture of his cheek. Inside her, a fire awoke.

  “Officers, can we agree,” pleaded Grace, “that the public is not ready to know about this? Will you please respect my requests for privacy?” Her tone begged for complicity.

  “Yes, yes. For now,” answered Valerie.

  “Thank you,” gasped Grace. “Thank you so much, officer.”

  Athena continued calculating, lost in her own world. “So the genome was never stolen at all?” she realized. The gears in her mind had gradually begun to turn.

  “Our server was still hacked,” answered Grace. “There was still a theft. But no, obviously, we have backed-up copies of our work.” She gestured toward the sleeping man. “Physical copies.”

  “Doctor,” Valerie declared, “In light of the magnitude of this discovery, and because you have offered evidence proving you are not sabotaging your own project — and finally because you have explicitly asked for privacy in the matter — Public Safety and I are willing to give you three days to come up with an explanation for this…irregularity. In the meantime, we will investigate other leads. However, if at the end of three days, you cannot supply a satisfactory answer for how this man has come to be here, and under whose authorization you are keeping him a secret, then I will no longer protect you. The world will know about this place.”

  “Understood completely. Thank you, officer,” said Grace. “And you, Athena, will you also promise to not reveal what you’ve seen here?”

  Athena’s mouth opened, but for several
beats no words came out. Finally, she mumbled, “Yes. Of course. Yes.”

  A few seconds of silent reverence passed before all three women departed from the room. As they left, Grace swiped the door closed. Alone again in darkness, the man continued to dream.

  The NAU Times

  August 14th, 2094

  The Heart and the Hope

  Full Transcript of the Congressional Speech delivered today by Speaker Jane Chen, immediately prior to the successful vote for Project Lazarus

  Ladies,

  I feel a great responsibility standing here before you today, representing not only myself, but also the many billions of voices lost from our world. When I close my eyes, I can still hear them, the men that I once knew in my life. They call out to me when the streets are calm and the wind rustles through the leaves. Can you hear them too?

  Those friends of mine are long gone, but this vote today is not about the past. It is about the future. The path we set forward here today will decide the society our daughters, and their daughters, and their daughters’ daughters will inherit for generations to come. Are we to give them a world of fear or a world of hope?

  I have heard the arguments against Project Lazarus. I have listened as the project's opponents have circled back, time and again, to the same rhetoric about the evils of men. I'll even grant, there is some truth in what they say. But it is also not a complete picture of the quality inherent in the gender. For every Adolph Hitler, there is an Abraham Lincoln. For every Genghis Khan, there is a Leonardo da Vinci. Are we really so afraid of the worst, that we are willing to give up on the best?

  The men that I knew in my life were blessed with many virtues. They were brave, and daring, and clever, and tenacious, and loyal. Most importantly, they were good. They were willing to fight for what was good and right in the world. Since the horrors of the Y-Fever, we women have been at peace for so long, we've forgotten what it's like to be beset on all sides by true evil. We've forgotten how much we have always relied on good men who were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to keep us safe.