by Hylton Smith
Harley surprised Nero and himself by instinctively reciprocating the embrace. “We’ll go back and check out of Brackendale. Can James stay with you until we get back? It won’t take more than a couple of hours.”
“Of course, leave whatever feed you have for him. Off you go, and hurry back. He may be mighty unhappy with a stranger after being spoilt by two mechanical men. You are both men aren’t you?”
“Not really, but that conversation will keep until we get back.”
*
Cleopatra and Galileo were not finding it easy to avoid roadblocks. The travel restrictions were being stringently enforced and the tailbacks posed an additional danger, as foot patrols were checking the stationary traffic. They disagreed about what to do next. Galileo insisted that he should leave the vehicle and take his chance on foot. Cleopatra said this was not an option. “Even if you avoid the checks, where will you be able to re-energise, you only have about three days operating level left, and if you head for the countryside, the booths are very sparse there, as well as many of them having been sabotaged by humans. The odds of you making it out of this ring are too slender.”
“Maybe, but my presence, if we are exposed, will guarantee your public elimination too. I can’t and will not allow this to happen.”
“In that case I suggest we return to your safe house in Seattle. The inbound traffic is light and flowing normally. If we were to abandon the vehicle they would be able to trace it to where I picked it up in Vancouver and that could endanger the others. We can sit it out for a while with your friend in Seattle, and when we make the next attempt we must be fully re-energised.” They turned around without causing too much attention.
*
The group test showed few surprises. In terms of leadership, Albert had dominated the others. He had gained cooperation from Atlas, but Lofty and Treetop had lost interest pretty quickly. This aspect of recognition of inferiority was felt to be important. The twins couldn’t offer much and realised Albert was way ahead of them, and subsequently gave up. Atlas had something to offer but also recognised Albert’s pre-eminence in the subject matter. He had tried to keep the twins in the loop to no avail. He’d been a mediator as well as a contributor. Albert was exclusively focussed on the problem and didn’t value distractive input. He wasn’t a team player, unless he clearly and unequivocally led the team. He had yet to face a situation in which he wasn’t pre-eminent.
In discussing this, Douglas Newton brought up another concern. “With such rapid development to adult status, we have observed that the mental maturity lags behind that of the physical equivalent, with one exception. If we consider Albert as by far the quickest, even he hasn’t reached his full projected height. Atlas is at present marginally less than ten feet tall, and is expected to push on to fifteen feet pretty soon. Lofty and Treetop are also someway short of their target at seven feet nine inches, and six feet two inches respectively. This cabin isn’t going to be an acceptable habitat for much longer. The ceiling is fractionally below nine feet from the floor and the doorways are going to pose a problem for all except Albert. The lab facility has higher ceilings but the doors are still going to be a problem. We should set them the task of using the logs we have to build another cabin and see how they tackle the project.”
Christophe wasn’t paying much attention but concurred. “Yeah, that could be fun for them. I had another speculative thought yesterday. We seem to have forgotten the signal which was despatched by the hologram at the first site on Ganymede. It was thought to be heading for the centre of the galaxy.”
“Go on,” said Newton.
“Well, when the Primedes accepted they had failed and went to the trouble to inscribe the vast walls of their cave, we assumed at the time that they could have become extinct. When you espoused the possibility that they could have modified Earth’s fauna on prior visits, I thought, maybe they just crossed the solar system off their list and headed off home. As you said, if they knew as a species, what was going to happen to their own sun for a really long time, they would have looked for other worlds as well. Maybe they are still around in some other galactic system in which they didn’t fail. The centre of the galaxy may have become just be some sort of data clearing house.”
“Have you been at the You2Me again Christophe?”
“Not recently, I’m just keeping an open mind. Anyway, are we going to ask them to think about this new cabin?”
The project excited them, particularly Lofty and Treetop. They loved being outside. The first thing they had to do was decide on the design. Once more Albert wanted to dispense with drawings, it was all in his head. Atlas persuaded him to humour the others, and the plan was drafted quickly. Atlas explained that the heavy work, even with the proper tools would be largely carried out by him and the twins. This was lost on Albert, until suddenly a rustling in the bushes exposed a hungry bear. They all backed off a little. The bear took this as an increase in the chances of a decent lunch, the first in a few days. It gesticulated and acted out some ritual, which prompted Albert to urinate uncontrollably. This was the trigger for action. Atlas walked straight at the bear and offered a few signals of his own. When the bear bounded forward, Atlas picked up what could have been a window lintel and smashed the bear’s head into a pulp with only two blows. Christophe and Newton observed this with awe. Not only had they been just as afraid as the others, but they had observed the leadership shown by Atlas. This was in sharp contrast to Albert’s recognition that he may be smarter than the others, but he certainly wasn’t an alpha male. The cabin project had a new leader, chosen as much by the environment as by architectural or engineering skills.
*
In the meantime, Paul Meyer had been given to understand that the lab facility would be shortlisted for approval to study and implement Tolstoy’s transcendental genetic programme. There would be a number of such establishments, and they would be instructed to cover different aspects of modification. He’d been asked about the expertise available to him for such important work and he conveyed absolute confidence that he could attract such people. He would offer proof of this if the Vancouver facility was bestowed with the honour of approval. When this was passed on to Douglas Newton it was perceived as good news, yet dependent on what kind of programmes Tolstoy would demand. They weren’t under any illusions that they could be extremely unpalatable.
*
Harley and Nero had returned to Hilda’s refuge and found her singing to James. She was already doting over the baby. They noticed that the place had fallen into considerable disrepair and offered to fix it up. The portents of James’ immediate future were good and they set about some of the more urgent corrective tasks for restoration of the building. Harley felt secure enough in this location to message both Douglas Newton and Cleopatra to query the status of their objectives. He was pleased to hear of Christophe Rivet’s apparent rehabilitation, and the various progress reports on the Ganymede ‘children’. He was however, apprehensive that there was no reply from Cleopatra. He didn’t even know whether she’d made contact with Galileo. The loyalist news bulletins were of no help, and the humans in this remote location didn’t really discuss the macro-political scenario, preferring to keep their own counsel, and retain their focus on survival.
Chapter 17
Having completed the refurbishment of Hilda’s property, Harley asked Nero if he wanted to stay or try to re-establish contact with the defeated Brotherhood.
“I can see that you are edgy here, and you’re definitely underutilised. As much as I appreciate the help you have given me, I realise that I’m holding you back. If you choose to go I’ll find it difficult to adjust for quite some time, but we’ll surely meet again. Please be honest, are you restless?”
“Truthfully, I feel as if I can’t contribute much to the genetic programme, and I don’t have the same attachment as you obviously do to James. I will also feel the wrench after we have worked so long together, and yet I do need another cause to fill the vacuum of our demo
ralising defeat. You have said many times that this is a particularly human craving for belonging, and I just couldn’t seem to share that view, but now it appears that I can. I’ll leave tomorrow, but I’ll keep in touch so that we can meet again if the situation permits.”
*
Cleopatra and Galileo had eventually made it back to central Seattle and he was able to access a re-energising booth. Their host informed them that they would need to consider moving on again soon because of Tolstoy’s security ring being inexorably tightened. The plan was now clear; urban sprawls were being surrounded, to prevent undesirables from eluding capture. The subsequent gradually turning screw of the vice benefitted from having more security personnel to scrutinise less people, in a shrinking area. The systematic phase of street by street purges had already started. Cleopatra began to think they had erred in falling for Tolstoy’s strategy of using fear of identification, to kettle thousands into a gigantic prison. They had to come up with a novel escape proposal, and soon, because there would come a point when it would be impossible. They frenetically considered the obvious candidates such as sewers, and deletion of selected modules, plus deliberate disfigurement which would approximate to typical injuries of loyalist veterans. They were rejected. Galileo said, “The sewer exits will be monitored, and even if we could successfully pose as wounded heroes, it would result in us being sectioned off for further scrutiny, and subsequent trivial awards, which would ensure we would be kept inside the ring. Tolstoy is big on handing out trinkets, disguising the real purpose - his new re-classification of all Borg.”
*
Christophe Rivet was not handling this phase of cold turkey too well, and it manifestly pushed him into a divergent path from Douglas Newton.
“Don’t you think this assessment programme has drifted into an esoteric, academic psychological exercise? I have been drawn into such dabbling because of my guilt in taking unilateral action when creating Albert. I now recall exactly why I did that. We have to extract something of immediate practical value from the vials. Otherwise the ticking clock will see all of us deleted from history. No one will ever know we existed. This has become even more urgent now that this Tolstoy has been specifically designed for maximum efficiency in cleansing the planet. Alexander will flit in and out of the scene to express concern publicly, and then privately express discontent that it isn’t proceeding as smoothly as agreed. Douglas, we have achieved nothing here other than creating a sophisticated kindergarten project.”
“I respect your impatience to a degree, but work of this nature has to be set on a very robust foundation slab. If this is not meticulously prepared we run a grave risk of drawing false conclusions. The study will proceed more quickly if we get approval for Paul Meyer’s unit to begin ‘legitimate’ research.”
Christophe was becoming more agitated. “That’s the very point I am trying to get through to you. There won’t be any legitimisation of genetic research which doesn’t square with the overall Borg desire to design humans toward extinction. It will be results-driven and any deviation will be punishable by cancellation of your licence to live. I can’t just sit here any longer without trying to identify some latent ability in our boys which can be harnessed against the oppression. Maybe if you had lost everything you’d ever cared about, as I have, you would be just as driven to take risks in order to end it all. I’m going to leave with Albert unless you can assure me that we can switch to a response mode with immediate effect.”
Newton asked precisely what he meant by ‘response mode’.
“I don’t know. If I did, I’d be getting on with it. You are the damned expert in genetics. It might seem unpalatable to you, but we have to amputate the ideology of the High Command, and it will not be achieved by negotiation. I don’t care if it shocks you to the core, I would even authorise biological weapons to completely eradicate the Borg elite. For Christ’s sake Douglas, wake up, this is a fight to the death, and as much as you want to pretend it will somehow go away, you simply prove my point. You said earlier that we needed absolutely firm bedrock for your study. Well then, heed those words, because we need that foundation even more urgently for this duel with the cybernetic scourge. Get off your fence of morality and face the fact that we are in an asymmetric conflict, in which one side has no emotional restraint to draw upon. Make up your mind now.”
Although thoroughly shaken by the ultimatum, Douglas Newton resisted carrying out anything but a scientific investigation.
“I cannot become an Oppenheimer, so if we unearth knowledge which you decide to employ as a killing device, you’re on your own.”
“That’s acceptable. Now I want to brief the boys with everything we know about them, and what we know so far about their origin. I will then tell them how the Cyborgs were created by humans and the rest of the story. I’m interested in whether they perceive any injustice, and if so, what their reaction is. If they don’t feel threatened in the same way I do, I will leave and ask Albert if he wants to come with me. That should allow you to continue to wallow in your self-delusion.”
*
The shrinking Seattle ring didn’t allow further procrastination on how to break out. Cleopatra suggested that they should use the seething panic in the streets to create a diversion. When asked by Galileo to elaborate, she said they would have to even up the panic between the citizens and the Hulks for just long enough to cause a breach. “I managed to get out of Rio in this way, although I admit it was a significantly lower density of those confined, and power of the guards’ weaponry compared to the Hulks. However, we won’t be alone in reacting to a breakout. My main worry is that some will pay with the ultimate sacrifice. If we accept that the alternative of doing nothing will actually cause more casualties, then I am prepared to go for it. We need to take out at least one Hulk, but preferably multiples. Our lasers won’t do it, so we have to use explosives.” Galileo asked his host if it was still possible to obtain explosive devices via the underground network of rebels. He replied in the affirmative.
“They will exist, but obtaining them won’t be easy. If you are prepared to go with me and allow a scan to show you are indeed Galileo, then that would be one currency for such a purchase. You will also be asked what your intended use is for explosive devices, even someone of your standing will be required to be explicit. They are nervous about attracting further searches for any kind of resistance.”
Galileo agreed and they joined the compacted throng.
Harley was enjoying the alternating solitude and interaction with James. Hilda had proved to be a godsend as a ‘grandmother’, teaching Harley the basics of caring for an infant. It was therefore quite a jolt back to reality when Cleopatra made contact.
“Galileo has perished. He was on a mission to get us out of here. He managed to obtain some grenades from the residue of the Brotherhood, and we were assisted by many domestiques in a coordinated sequence of simultaneous targets. They had little effect on the Hulks other than creating confusion. It produced a temporary breach in their line and we went for it with hundreds of others. We knew the risk, but underestimated the speed of response, and Galileo was caught by the edge of a DPB discharge while helping a fallen domestique. I was lucky to get out, along with maybe a dozen others. I’m currently in thick woods and I’ll soon run out of charge. I don’t expect to make it back but I am giving you my coordinates, so that if someone can retrieve me, I will be capable of reactivation. In case that is not possible, I will say goodbye.”
“Wait, I can get to you. There is only one re-energising station between here and the Rodriguez’ family, so I will take a full charge and then call on Cameron. Another charge and help from him in obtaining transport should get me to where you are. I’m on my way.”
She resisted this until he told her about James’ new grandparent. She relented and prepared herself for at the very least, a temporary death.
*
Christophe’s story-telling fascinated the select audience. The reaction to the conclusion was
so splintered that it even amazed Douglas Newton. Lofty and Treetop wanted to sign up for the rebel cause immediately, possibly their instinct to survive had eventually been triggered. Atlas, for the first time betrayed signs of volatility, and this was followed by an intense clamour for retribution. This fervour was escalating, even though he’d never seen the enemy. The power of Christophe’s tale had created this surreal reaction. It was as though Atlas was still a child, and therefore unable to detach the storyteller’s passion from his interpretation of the issue. Albert was uncharacteristically calm. He had to be persuaded to speak.
“It would appear that I’m different in origin from Lofty, Treetop, Atlas, and even Adam and Simon. I am also suddenly aware that although my biological makeup is closer to primates than it is to these Cyborgs, the elegance of the inorganic ability to comprehend, and act decisively is seductive. It may offer a route to virtual perfection. Before you say that this represents the sole cause of the current genocide campaign, I would respectfully have to draw on my only experience of such Cyborg traits to date, and that is exclusively with rebels, as you have described them. Does this not rank equally with deviant behaviour within the human species? Harley, Cleopatra, Nero and the other domestiques, as you refer to them, are the proof that it’s not the template that is flawed, rather the programming and upgrading without sufficient research.”
Christophe was ready to once again introduce the dimension of time, and its likely elimination of certain options. Newton asked Albert to continue.
“If your claims regarding my species are correct, then I can visualise that they preferred to research compatibility with Atlas’ DNA because it would probably be safer. They may have recognised flaws in their own evolutionary direction, and wanted a more ‘stable’ union. Perhaps they had already experienced too much diversity in what was essentially a Homo-Sapiens template, which really describes me. This is another example of the dimension of time. I am, like my friends here, from the past, and yet I have the privilege of debating the present. If my species was responsibly trying to prevent polarisation, and ultimately a branch to a sub-species, then they truly did fail. There must be a way to alter the rogue Borg, rather than eradicate them.”