by Hylton Smith
Cleopatra shook her head. “It’s most definitely a one-time paradox we face Harley, because the Ganymede option will be destroyed by Alexander when he eventually follows your own recommendation to revisit the second site.”
Rodriguez added his perspective. “We’ve been through a lot together Harley, and I respect your view. You have always said you envy human family values. Well, surely you must expect me to do everything I can to give my kids every chance of a good life. Even though Alexander may stop short of totally eradicating humans, we can’t sit and let him cause the extinction of those who have fought to prevent our own extinction. If there was another option I would like to hear it, but the alien technology seems to be all we have, even if it is risky. The population of domestiques will soon be less in number than humans, and if you’re right that Alexander will create more, it potentially equates to even more misery if such a cycle is repeated. I don’t believe anything he says other than that tomorrow another one hundred thousand innocent souls will die.”
Christophe Rivet had offered no contribution. Harley deferred to the democratic vote by asking for an update on the two new species.
Douglas Newton obliged. “Adam and Simon are able to converse in a primitive way and it will soon be pretty fluent. Adam’s mathematical ability is already impressive and Simon works furiously to catch up. They have adapted amazingly quickly to abandon the expected instinctive traits they should have inherited. Their appetite for learning is voracious. Their predecessor, the infant doesn’t appear to be showing any deviation yet, but unlike his kin he is truly only weeks old. The next human ‘twins’ are also on the fast maturation track and are taller than Adam and Simon, even though they are much younger, relatively speaking. The alien indication that they will ultimately grow to between nine and eleven feet looks valid. Their brain capacity is greater than that of Adam, and they can already sustain conversations which include abstract concepts. They are extremely promising individuals, and we’ve had to separate them from Adam and Simon because they are being held back and get frustrated. They have been named Lofty and Treetop. I can’t report any negative aspect regarding their behaviour and I’m constantly testing this out. If the vial the Primedes refer to as the perfect specimen is a further dot on the graph, and in the anticipated direction, we may be very surprised by its potential. I do however have to remind everyone that this vial is based on Neanderthal DNA, and our expectations should not be rigidly optimistic.”
Before Harley could articulate his question, Christophe jumped the queue. “What about the pure alien DNA or Primedes as you keep referring to them?”
Newton looked at Harley, who shook his head, and Christophe challenged him.
“Yes, that’s what I thought you’d say. Can I ask why? We know nothing about them except that they have fiddled with ancient primate DNA and, oh yes, that the apparent imbued radiation resistance is not the major aim; it’s just a supporting adjustment to achieve some higher purpose. Well, I for one want to know what that is. It might be good or bad – we need to know. By this time next week the war may be over and I don’t want to be part of the hell that comes after Alexander begins his new order. He has only shown some restraint until the present because he feared a backlash from the domestiques. Well he’s been there and done that now, and knows there’s nothing to fear.”
Nobody else endorsed his request and the meeting was adjourned to begin with the perfect specimen, now that the Borg inspection of the facility had passed without incident. Christophe went to an abandoned logging camp where he had stored his stash. The cabin was set on a plinth and he retrieved a double dose of You2Me from under the floorboards. Harley and Christophe had never had a comfortable relationship, even before Genevieve and the baby perished.
Harley was unsettled and ushered Douglas Newton into the cellar of the corn mill. “How did Christophe know about your hypothesis that the Primedes had some more important purpose than conferring radiation resistance to the subject DNA?”
“Well I certainly didn’t tell him, if that’s what you are getting at. He’s in a very strange mood these days. He doesn’t seem to have actually begun to grieve over his loss yet. Perhaps he overheard me sharing my thoughts with you. I haven’t mentioned this supposition of mine to anyone other than you. Why are you so concerned?”
“He just gives me the impression that he’s going to emotionally explode at any moment. It’s not totally out of character, but I’ve never known him so touchy. We had a few scares while on Ganymede, yet he was one of the calmest on the mission.”
Harley went to look for Christophe and his unease was accentuated when there was no sign of him and nobody knew where he was. His search was interrupted by a long-awaited contact from Galileo. It wasn’t good news.
“I have had to make a run for it. After several heated arguments with those of our rebel leaders who aren’t moles in the loyalist ranks, I was informed that there would be no surrender. I pressed them to offer a cease-fire, but their stubbornness was impossible to dislodge. They maintained that from now the war would simply lead to cleansing of domestiques as well as humans, and surrender would not change this. They could be right, but since I made the first request, they have had to witness over one and a half million executions. The intensity of my efforts to halt this slaughter eventually attracted the wrong kind of attention in HQ, and with the threat of exposure, I had to consider the options. If my cover was blown, there was really only one course of action. I either had to get out before they immobilised me and interrogated my data core, or disappear. Letting them extract information which could put others in danger was unacceptable to me. They would have been on to your project and your location. I could have deleted some of the information but what would that achieve. I have a trustworthy friend in Seattle, so I’ll try to get there before contacting you again. Don’t say anything to anyone. Good luck.”
*
By midday Christophe had returned and Harley challenged him. “What is really bothering you about taking reasonable precautions with the programme?”
“Precautions have to be considered within the dimension of time. Not as a neutral parameter, but as a finite one, beyond which such precautions will become meaningless. From where I sit, the inertia you’re creating is more like procrastination than precaution.”
“Have you forgotten that the Primedes’ data inscriptions suggested they were nitrogen breathers?”
“Of course not, but our atmosphere is almost eighty percent nitrogen, it is the high oxygen content which apparently gave them problems. We could nurture them on pure nitrogen respirators just as mountaineers need oxygen supplementation at very high altitude. If you really do admire the maverick nature of humans, start thinking like one of us. Solve the problem instead of clinging to the illusion that we have all the time in the world to crawl like a tortoise to some vaguely acceptable health and safety approved weapon. I think it’s necessary to consider some of the irreversibility which is thrown in our faces every day, and not just that which is utterly personal to me. There are some lessons from nature. If you can’t stop the tsunami which approaches and you spend too long evaluating which options are the safest, you risk not realising that the only guaranteed one is getting the hell out of the way. You, of all individuals in this group, are best placed to be certain, that unless you stop this monster Alexander, there is no exit strategy for any but loyalist Borg. Don’t bother asking my opinion any more, and I have no further interest in yours.”
Harley began to feel like the leper in this small colony. His self-analysis added to his dilemma. He had considered the DNA content of the vials as ‘suspended abortions’, still deserving compassion. He agonised over shedding such naivety. Was he influenced by trying to be seen to portray human emotions? On reflection, he admitted that he had tried to bury the daily mass extermination events because he was the worst kind of eunuch. He was powerless, blameless, clueless, motionless, as well as sexless. He resolved to look at the situation differently. Comparing
the various components in the vials, with Borg assembly line circuitry and enabling connections, afforded him the chance to step back a little. Christophe was right, there would only be another opportunity to continue his own mental journey to imperfection if Alexander was indeed stopped in his tracks.
*
The broadcasts did the rest. The High Command paraded pictures of every facility which had been recaptured, and more significantly, domestiques who had agreed to modifications which would allow the merciful Alexander to welcome them back, instead of atomising them. This was the closing item of the programme, putting a sanitised spin on the preceding stadium execution. The fade out simply said, “There is another way.” The effect on remaining rebel strongholds was one of disintegration.
Harley was telling the group that he’d conquered his doubts, and was ready to fall in line with the clamour to experiment with all vials as soon as possible. He had only just started to explain how he’d arrived at this change of heart. The whole group was startled by Christophe entering the room, shouting and yelling, as if he was in a hallucinatory labyrinth. “Come with me, at once, please hurry, this changes everything.”
They were all edgy as they were obviously heading for the lab facility. They pressed him about the sanity of this, as they had never attended as a group, and mass entry would surely cause suspicion. Christophe admitted this was an oversight due to his panic. He had made regular visits to the lab to carry out the monitoring requested by Douglas Newton, and had been able to learn how to conduct the procedures with the vial specimens. He had taken matters into his own hands, and now his hands weren’t big enough to ‘hold the baby’. He accepted that only Newton and Harley should accompany him to the lab.
Chapter 14
As Christophe led the other two to the DNA display, he was full of regret. “I didn’t know what to expect, and I imagined reptilian, avian, or even bizarre photochemical organisms. I convinced myself that these Primedes were phenomenally advanced thousands of years ago, so they would somehow be our saviours.”
Newton tried to console him. “Well at least we don’t have anything to fear from the unknown any more, and there doesn’t seem to be any need to fast-track this vial.”
“That’s why I asked you to come here. I have already created a living specimen with the maturation programme.”
Harley pushed him with considerable force, causing him to fall backwards, and his full weight twisted and cracked his wrist joint. Harley had uncharacteristically lost all self-control. “I was in the process of telling everyone that I’d reconsidered my stance on this, and I was about to ask what measures we could take to provide proper care for all the new individuals we had brought into this world of conflict. We have yet to see what emotional difficulties will arise with Adam, Simon, Lofty and Treetop. Then we have a nameless Neanderthal to consider. The first creation is still a baby and also has no name. Where do you think we’re going to keep them safe from the loyalists? How do you think they will interact and respond to a life of constant hiding from the number one predator? These beings may be showing promise by appetite for learning, but they may also have hunter-gatherer tendencies hardwired into their genetic makeup. They may not be able to resist trying to escape.”
Newton was examining Christophe’s fractured wrist while enquiring as to the whereabouts of this latest addition to the family. Christophe said he could take care of his injury himself. “I have discovered an abandoned logging cabin. He is there, and he’s safe for now. I concocted a hand-held nitrogen supply for him and taught him how to use it. He only needs to avoid build-up of excessive oxygen levels. I think he will adapt.”
“Take us there,” snarled Harley, “we’ll make up our own mind about what he needs and whether he will be able to live alongside the others.”
As they met up with the rest of the group to relate what had happened, there was more bad news. Rodriguez had a message from Michaela. “The Rebel Brotherhood has officially surrendered. Hostilities have ceased. Alexander is expected to make an announcement soon.”
The air of resignation was palpable and yet laced with immediate intent to discuss how they could continue to evade capture by the loyalists. In their own way they would all be classified as terrorists, and there was only one sentence for such criminals. They were already concentrating on what may happen to the new Ganymede arrivals when Christophe indicated the cabin was directly ahead in a clearing. The entry of so many individuals at once provoked mild panic in Christophe’s new friend. The group, on the other hand, was in total shock. Stood before them was a normal, hairless, smooth-skinned humanoid figure. He looked to be entering his early teens, yet his creator insisted that he was only thirty-six hours old. He could converse, and recovered sufficient confidence to articulate his concern, which hitherto had been his exclusive contact with Christophe, and therefore the human form. He was decidedly unsure of the various individual, yet identical looking Cyborgs. His striking blue eyes were sparkling, in total contrast to the other Ganymede imports, whose brown iris colouring suggested normality. He could have easily been mistaken for a Caucasian had it not been for the moderately pigmented skin, which gave him the aura of a hybrid.
Douglas Newton asked for quiet. “I now have, albeit by default, all of the living specimens from the Ganymede inventory, and I can begin the DNA superimposition of the four discrete examples. I suggest we name those who have not yet been given such identity. I want to begin immediately, so Harley, can you take care of this. Let’s get back to the corn mill so that we can unite all of the new arrivals.”
Harley was still partly thinking as a member of the High Command. “Yes I can do that, but before we go any further, we have to consider the probability that we may need to split up to survive. We should check which of us would be willing to take responsibility for the safety of these vulnerable individuals. We can keep them together for a while, but if we have to move around to elude Alexander’s scourge, two of them would stand out immediately. Being over nine feet or fifteen feet tall requires remoteness, whereas the six-foot humanoids and the baby have a chance of blending in, at least for some time.”
After quite a long-winded session, which was beginning to annoy Newton intensely, Nero, Beethoven and Anton were to be excused and allowed to make a move during cover of darkness. Nero declined, the other two agreed to leave within six hours. Cleopatra wanted to stay and help in any way she could. Rodriguez was torn, but the decision was made for him by Harley stating the need to look after his wife and children, and part of that was to accept the exodus of the rest. Christophe wanted to help Newton in his research. Harley’s next pronouncement raised the eyebrows of those who had such features.
“I am happy to take responsibility for the baby.”
“But you’re a Borg, it is against the law,” said Newton.
“This cease-fire means that in effect there are no longer any laws, just survival. I wish to adopt the baby and do whatever I can for him, even if I have to engage a human ‘servant’ to exhibit normality. Unless anyone has a better idea, let us progress to the next-born. What about Adam and Simon?”
Rodriguez felt compelled to offer them refuge.
“And now Lofty and Treetop,” insisted Harley.
Newton suggested that both of them and the Neanderthal would still be safe for some time in a disused part of the Bio-Lab complex. “This would assist my research, and let’s be honest they wouldn’t stand a chance in the open. I have to urge you to just accept this and press on. I will refer to the Neanderthal as Atlas.”
Christophe raised his hand timidly. “I caused part of the problem, so I’ll take responsibility for the latest arrival. My fervent hope is that he might be the most promising of all, despite the Primedes statement that Atlas was the perfect specimen. We will stay with Douglas Newton until he has concluded his work.”
Cleopatra was so moved by Harley setting an example of subordinating his own safety, to assist another that she wanted to help him protect the infant. Douglas
Newton could at last take further DNA of all matured Ganymede strains and begin his foray into the secrets of the Primedes genetic knowledge.
*
The exodus was all but complete. Contact details were exchanged again to ensure they could reunite whenever possible. Anton and Beethoven took their chance on Vancouver Island. Harley, Cleopatra, Nero and the baby headed further north into more remote territory. The little one had a name – James, as yet a rebel without a cause. Rodriguez and his new guests began to alter the family basement to provide suitable accommodation; it was within the family circle but had privacy when required. Christophe waited until the others were well on their way before informing Newton of the name he’d chosen for his charge. His faith in the blue-eyed alien-humanoid was reflected in the implication just as much as the actual appellation. Albert was never going to be an asset in wielding conventional weapons, but he might just offer cerebral attributes which could be adopted in outwitting the foe. He was the last-born but the first to reach true adulthood, and his rate of assimilation of knowledge was only surpassed by his comprehension of it, and indeed his subsequent challenges to it.
*
They didn’t have long to wait for the first ‘peacetime’ declaration from the dictator with absolute power. Alexander’s former accommodating language had been ditched to make way for that of his clear, uncompromising road map to the elimination of square pegs in round holes.
“As from today, all human travel permits will be suspended until further notice. Borg domestiques will now require authorisation for any movement outside the radius of their residence – work location mid-point. A new High Command structure is soon to be instituted and the first of these is the appointment of Tolstoy, who has been my understudy in the latter stages of the war. He will operate a zero tolerance policy, and this will apply to every aspect of observance of additional new laws which he will disseminate tomorrow. All citizens are advised that the right of appeal against arrest for breaches of such statutes is to be revoked concurrent with them being introduced. This is the foundation of the Era of Conformance.”