by Hylton Smith
Christophe finally intruded. “How does that compensate for the abject disregard of their victims? Not only have they embarked upon an extinction strategy for their creators, they have extended that fate to any of their own species who refuse to accept the edict.”
Albert shook his head. “I am unable as yet, to rank one atrocity against another. I only seem to be capable of looking at a problem and feeling compulsion to solve it. Are the two actions mutually exclusive? If you are able to rise up again and strike back, I will still work on a way to technologically change the predisposition of your foe to one of tolerance, as opposed to violence. Harley may hold the key, and somewhere in his replicated circuitry we will find an error, just as in human evolution.”
Chapter 18
Harley was intrigued by what Cameron Rodriguez had dredged up in his quest to provide transport. An old friend of the family had conceded to loan him a motorbike, providing there was no traceable lead for the Borg to land at his door. Rodriguez duly arrived at Hilda’s cabin and picked up his friend. It wasn’t a revered Harley-Davidson, but it was capable of negotiating many different types of terrain. This was crucial in terms of eluding or escaping any stray Borg surveillance units. The journey back to the Rodriguez household was a mix of apprehension and fun. Harley had to be satisfied with a pillion perspective on this leg, but having dropped off his friend and re-energised, he experienced a true appreciation of the freedom of ‘man and machine’.
The second leg of his journey was more dangerous and he had to make frequent detours off the country roads. At last he arrived at the coordinates sent by Cleopatra. She had indeed succumbed to energy drain, and he had to drape her form over the pillion position and strap her tightly to the frame. He elected to travel back in the dark and at a much slower speed. He appreciated the coincidence of the crescent moon and almost full cloud cover. Nevertheless, it was a tense sixteen hours before turning into the driveway of the Rodriguez residence once more, just as the sun’s rays scattered their refracted illumination over the distant hills. He accepted their hospitality, and stayed indoors, as he wanted to get Cleopatra to a booth when the darkness could again come to his aid. He was relieved to see her ‘boot up’ cleanly. The short distance back to Hilda’s welcome was more relaxing in terms of unexpected encounters, but there was a surprise for Harley. Cleopatra recounted conversations she had heard while escaping Seattle with the other breakout domestiques, who had witnessed Galileo’s unfortunate fate.
“These fellow escapees were typical Brotherhood members and refused to concede permanent defeat. The vivid fall of Galileo to the Hulks brought out further defiance. They didn’t hesitate to begin chanting your name in an instinctive act of resistance. With the original leaders basically committing suicide, and Galileo falling in their midst, they seemed to take it as a sign of courage that he risked contacting them for grenades and had tried to lead them out of a hopeless situation. I promised that I would ask you to consider their plight. I will stay with you and James for as long as it takes, but I’ll ask you each and every day to accept their call. They believe that more than anyone else, you have proven empathy with humans, and that was really the spark which got the resistance movement to grow from an ideology into action. Needless to say, when you do concede to the request, I’ll be at your side.”
*
The broadcasts enumerated a list of cities, which, like Seattle, had been similarly strangled and purged of both domestique and human dissenters, without discrimination. The remainder of the bulletin rolled out the status of the genetic transcend programme. Vancouver was among the primary list of eight facilities. As yet, the spread of objectives for these candidates was kept under wraps, but it was confirmed that there would be three main thrusts to the research.
It was less than two hours from the end of the bulletin when Paul Meyer was asked to furnish his genetic expert for scrutiny by Tolstoy himself. This was seen by Meyer as a good sign, and he wasted no time in contacting Douglas Newton. Christophe saw this extremely short notice very differently to Meyer. “You must do as you please Douglas, but I will continue with our boys. I can’t say I support Meyer’s embrace of this treacherous policy, and I predict he will end up regretting his collaboration. You should also be careful in signing up with the devil. I refrain from saying anything more.”
“I fully understand your position Christophe, but I hope we can still be friends, whatever I decide. I have to hear what the research direction is before I can make a balanced decision.”
“I wish you luck, especially if you think you’ll be told the truth about what the final objective is. It will be cleverly disguised. Do you remember the ‘research’ mission of the Third Reich? It curiously sublimed from those high ideals into the most monstrous orchestrated butchery in history at the time. You may end up having the distinction of usurping that ‘achievement’. Sorry, I promised that I wasn’t going to say any more.”
Christophe watched Newton meander in the direction of Meyer’s facility, and took that to mean that he had already made up his mind. He asked the boys to forget the half-finished building project, and then go with him to look for a new hideout. He promised each of them that he would help them follow through on their aspirations. Addressing the twins first, he would reintroduce them to Harley and Cleopatra, who would guide them to appropriate recruiting agents for any Brotherhood revival plan. Atlas was given assurance that he could shed some of his frustration by study of the Hulks, and therefore what he would be up against. This pledge was dependent on Albert’s promise that he would need none of Christophe’s time, to help him pursue his proposed modification of the Borg template, concurrent with Tolstoy’s ongoing edict on the human equivalent. Albert acknowledged this, and said all he needed to get started was the entire detailed information from Ganymede, and a computer database access to human history. It was a neat solution for Christophe in many ways, because he had seen some of himself in Atlas, and believed he could mould the Neanderthal template into a fighting force. Unknown to Newton, Christophe had purloined all of the vials. He intended to create as many relatives of Atlas as possible before the facility was commandeered by Tolstoy. He knew that Newton would not want these vials to fall into the hands of the High Command, and this was his leverage in persuading him to assist in the process. Meyer didn’t need to know.
Douglas Newton initially resisted Christophe’s request. The further threat of total exposure of the work carried out so far did the trick. “Listen Douglas, I used to consider you as a friend, and one with a steadfast moral compass, but I’ve been wrong about so many things recently. When I tell Tolstoy about all of our new creations, not only will they be exterminated, but Paul Meyer, you and yours truly will join them. The facility will be razed to the ground. Have no doubts about whether I’ll do this Douglas, because I’ve already accepted that I’ll die anyway, when I can finally inflict fitting revenge upon the High Command. It may be second best to see traitors like you and Meyer pay for your treachery, but it has the merit of ending my personal misery sooner.”
Newton capitulated to this ultimatum. “Let’s get this done now, so that you can disappear before Tolstoy’s arrival. Where are you going to house these new recruits?”
“No need to concern your duplicitous brain with such data, just begin the process and I will tell you when to stop.”
*
Atlas and the twins were standing by to collect the new embryos and whisk them away to wherever. About ten percent of the vial had yielded forty male and forty-seven female Neanderthal recruits, and they departed once they could walk upright. The rate of growth ensured that they kept up a reasonably brisk pace. After picking up Albert, they headed to higher ground. With darkness descending and the moon forcing the sun below the horizon, they settled in a clearing to watch the infants embark upon their short journey of maturation to totally independent mobility and awareness of life’s predators. By morning the jabbering had reached fever pitch and the trek was resumed. A large building came
into view as they crested a steep rise. It looked as if it was isolated, but this was deceptive, as the trees had obscured a few dwellings. The abandoned church and its surrounding hamlet were occupied by homeless groups and social dropouts. The church was ideal in its construction, having large doors and ample headroom. The occupants were terrified of the incomers, until Christophe explained they were all in their own way hiding from the Borg elite. His supply of You2Me came in handy as an inter-species calming agent, and helped keep an emotional lid on the ‘grow as you talk’ Neanderthals.
*
The army of eighty-plus would soon hear their first brief history lesson from Christophe. Atlas would then explain the need for a chain of command, and division of the group when combat beckoned. He also wanted to encourage breeding, not just to increase the battalion, but to have children to defend. The time had come for contact with Harley.
Christophe began with an apology for his prior attitude toward the new front runner for Commander-in-Chief of the scattered, rag-tag rebel resistance. Having then explained the burning desire of Lofty and Treetop to join the cause, he suspected that Harley was quite cool about the idea. Cleopatra was quite the opposite. She had fastened on to Christophe’s claim that Atlas had now reached fourteen and a half feet in height and the fledglings were well on their way. “You said that Lofty and Treetop were also pretty near their mature height of nine feet, how many of such recruits could we expect in future?”
“If the vials are similar in content, then I would say about eight hundred.”
“Can we have two Neanderthals as well as the twins?”
“No, I have my own campaign to consider.”
Harley intervened. “Look Christophe, we can’t impose any danger upon Hilda. She has kindly taken us in to nurture James, and I won’t let that be prejudiced.”
Hilda nudged him and said it might actually be safer for James if there were no Borg staying with her for a while. “The villagers are a funny bunch, and you’d better believe me, there’s a heck of a long way to go before they’ll accept your presence on their turf. Come on, look around, this is a one-horse town. You and Cleopatra are hell-bent on fostering a human baby, what’d yer expect, a medal? These rednecks gotta see you as active resistance fighters, to prove you can be trusted. They hardly trust me and I’ve lived here for almost half a century. Hello, are you listening?”
This sentiment achieved what the daily badgering by Cleopatra had not. Harley told her to inform the rebels she’d encountered in Seattle that he was ready to lead them.
“Ok Christophe, send your twins to the following coordinates and give them the vial which contains their future brothers.”
*
Amidst all of this planning and movement, Christophe was besieged by the fifty or so social outcasts. They wanted to fight on the side of the big guy. When it was explained what it would entail, and the odds of survival, they were undeterred. One spokesman said, “What future do we got anyway? We’ve retreated away from certain death by these Borg bastards, then we were called lepers by our own species. We know we won’t be much use, but most of us are on death row ‘cause of the radiation, malnutrition, and drugs. We’re coming whether you want us or not, that’s about the only promise we can make.”
Christophe began to shake his head when a second, less erudite representative grabbed his arm.
“What the fuck we got left to lose, huh? Let me tell you about life for us, ‘kay? Them borg pieces of metal shit push us from one squalid craphole to another, an’ every time I think maybe the lucky ones are them that don’t escape. ‘Cause you know what? The robots ain’t even the ones that hate us most. At least those bastards care enough to try an’ kill us. Our own species don’t even give that much of a toss. We’re dirt to them. Less than dirt. We’re dead to them before we even die, you feel me?
“So don’t tell me we can’t fight for this, man. We may not be shit all use on the big stage, but these people been starved, drugged an’ poisoned. Their lives don’t mean squat to anybody else, so I will NOT take away the chance for them to mean something to themselves. With or without your okay, we doin’ this. That’s the one guarantee I’ll give you that you can take to your freakin’ bank.”
Chapter 19
They realised from his very first sentence that Tolstoy’s idea of transcending human deficiencies was different from what they had expected. Paul Meyer and Douglas Newton could not hide their dismay.
“The era of human self-indulgence is at an end. They have to be much more productive from now on. The first and most pressing objective is one of sustenance. Evolution has offered the species a veritable richness in quality and variation of diet, but at a cost. Valuable manufacturing capability is preoccupied with such luxury. You need to appreciate that the call for a balanced diet is but a fantasy of convenience. Somehow the human race has become obsessed with not only the nutritional value of every meal, but also its visual appearance. There are even competitive ‘entertainment’ programmes for producing ‘champions’ of culinary concoctions, none of which would be beyond the capability of any simple computing device. Your species has fallen from a position of competent engineering vision to that of filling the vacuum of individual boredom. In order for us to achieve efficient running of your metabolism, we have to alter its demands. You will commence work on ridding the species of allergies, so that a uniform diet is acceptable to all, and efficient to manufacture. It needs to be the same every time, obviating the need for desire. The current food-manufacturing capacity, and the even more complex need for testing, refrigerating, and storing the products will have to be decimated. You know that this plague is still not under control, and we want to help. More vaccine is required and this dovetails with simplification of foodstuff production. Such wasteful activity will be replaced by pharmaceutical products which will reduce risk of disease. This in turn fits well with the travel restrictions for humans, and thus curtailing the spread of such contagious pestilence. The obvious corollary to this is to abandon animal husbandry. It is necessary for all organic species to evolve or perish. Gentlemen, when we are successful with this small first step, you will engage in bioengineering of a different kind. The new robust human form will be better protected, and produces a platform ripe for deliberate mutation. Procreation will be limited to one per family during this phase, as the offspring will be experimental and we don’t want to create the kind of plague we are trying so hard to eliminate. The details of the second phase can wait until success of the first is delivered. Humans must begin to pay their way, because we can’t afford individual ambition to prejudice convergent evolution. No freeloading will be tolerated. Failure to recognise this will result in termination. We must look to the stars. Now Meyer, I need to speak with Douglas Newton in private.”
Meyer was the first demonstration of the ruthless pursuit of efficiency. He was led to the forecourt of the facility and promptly delivered a heavy DPB dose of fragmentation. The pile of his remains was gathered into a hygienic pouch and labelled as experimental DNA. Newton was familiarised with his new role of Director of Research. Tolstoy and his entourage of twelve Hulks left for the next interview.
Newton was shaking with fear and regretted not heeding Christophe’s advice. The workforce of the facility began to consider their options and some drifted away. Within forty-eight hours Newton called in his senior managers to deliver an ultimatum, or so he thought. They had already recognised his weak, self-serving character, and where that would lead with someone like Tolstoy. His ready acceptance of Meyer’s fate, and then his new cowardly remit, painted a picture in which they didn’t want to feature. He was hauled up to the top of the company flagpole by his neck, and allowed to dangle in the breeze. The facility was abandoned and a number of the ex-employees began to think about forming a resistance movement of their own. It would never be of serious consequence in a global sense, but it was a new blip on the radar. Its greater impact could be the potential for all other genetic facilities to refuse Tolsto
y’s demands. Although the news of this couldn’t spread via broadcasts, it had lit up the local grapevine and reached Christophe, via the dropouts. He wasted no time in informing Harley. When this was passed on to the inhabitants of Brackendale, and he declared his intent to help unite this budding resistance movement with the dispersed Rebel Brotherhood, he tapped their support for the very first time. Cleopatra urged them on. “I witnessed our previous leader, Galileo, fall while helping both humans and domestiques escape the Borg Hulks in Seattle. He was on his way here to begin the second generation of the Rebel Brotherhood. His death is a massive blow, but our objective remains unchanged, and Harley has responded to the call to take on the challenge. We will fight on your behalf even if you don’t help us, but it would reinforce the morale of our forces if you did. It may be some time before we can make sufficient inroads toward a second global conflict, but the spirit in which the genetic facility workers, and the region’s social outcasts have declared their independent intent, represents the acorn of the forest.”
Harley was amazed at the spark which resulted from her oratory, and he detected a clear turning point in how the crowd felt toward the two of them. He knew it was the right moment to acquaint them with the presence of James. Cleopatra brought Hilda and the infant to the gathering, and Harley explained why he had tried so hard to find a refuge for the boy. He asked if the residents would help Hilda in keeping him safe, while he and Cleopatra set about their recruiting drive. The band of volunteers began to swell, and the new kernel of rebels awaited the arrival of Lofty, Treetop, the dropouts, and the genetic facility deserters.
*
Christophe was busy teaching the Neanderthals basic tactics. His first battle plan was to overwhelm a few isolated Hulks, and eliminate them in order to demonstrate that they weren’t invincible. The regiment was responding well, and with Atlas acting as an able deputy, he went off to the nearest village to watch and analyse the broadcasts. He was about to leave when the item he was hoping to see came up. The pictures showed Douglas Newton hanging limply from the flagpole. The message, delivered as a quotation from Tolstoy left no room for ambiguity. ‘This callous act of murder will not go unpunished. The work which Douglas Newton had agreed to carry out was designed to benefit humans, but now the humans in this region will pay the price which would be expected of such terrorist actions. The work will go on at another location. Updates will be broadcast as they become available.’