by M. V. Kallai
“What’s the project?” Dana asked.
“Tell me what’s behind those dividers in the main lab,” Bearden replied.
“Not a chance.”
“Well, then have a nice week, Miss Hanks,” Bearden said and left.
Dana smiled to herself, holding her hair dye. When Bearden was out of sight, she finished putting things away, then rushed back into the main lab to check on the embryos in their little tubes.
At the government housing section of the TRU Building, Camden got out of the shower and dragged a towel over his ruffled, wet hair when there was a knock at his door. Ignoring whomever it was, he rolled his eyes and longed for his lost privacy. They knocked again.
“Give me a moment,” Camden called out and slipped into his robe; one of the comfort items he had requested be brought into his new government home. He took his time finishing his after shower grooming rituals, got dressed and went to the door. Ganesh and his lapdog, Quinn, stood there with eager expressions on their faces, though Ganesh looked tired.
“Gentlemen, what can I do for you this evening?” Camden asked. His manners had slowly begun to return as he adjusted little by little to his predicament.
“Camden, mind if we come in?” Ganesh asked. Camden made an inviting motion with his hand and the two walked in.
“I like what you’ve done with the place, Professor,” Quinn said. “You’ve really brought some class.”
Camden gave him a fake smile and offered them chairs around the small dining table.
“Samuel, I was just about to pour myself a nightcap. Can I offer you one?”
“No, no. We won’t be here long,” Ganesh replied.
“I’d love one, Professor,” Quinn said with a grin. Ganesh immediately smacked him in the back of the head.
“We’re both just fine,” Ganesh said. Camden seemed a little amused by this and poured the young sergeant a drink. Ganesh threw his hands up and made a disapproving clicking sound with his tongue.
“Don’t be so uptight, Ganesh. This boy does have to put up with you all day, every day.”
Quinn smiled at Camden and raised his glass.
“Hmph. Unbelievable,” Ganesh said. Camden was now smiling; obviously enjoying the small grief he caused his old friend. Any punishment he could inflict, no matter how small, was worth it.
“The general is pleased with your simplified space travel proposal, Cam,” Ganesh started.
“I assumed he would be.”
“He wants to know how long before your theories will be ready for practical testing.”
“If we start with modifications to existing shuttles, it will go much faster than starting with a new build,” Cam replied.
“But, what are the drawbacks with that plan?”
“Adaptability, of course, and since you are running active shuttle missions, I assume we will have to use the retired shuttles. That means you run the usual risks of dealing with an older machine.”
“The general is not one for doing things half-assed, Camden, and you know that. I also know why this is your first choice,” Ganesh said. Camden didn’t say anything for a moment.
Quinn, who was taking his usual notes, took advantage of the pause in conversation to sip Camden’s fine scotch.
“It’s no secret that I want to go home, Ganesh, but there are upsides to working with this plan, too,” Camden finally said.
“Which are?”
“If we start by making the technology adaptable, not only will you be able to build larger, newer ships that can be lived upon in a few years, but your entire fleet can be converted, making mining and exploring missions more efficient…ten fold.”
“Hmmm.”
“If you build from scratch, you will lose time and resource in the long run, as conversions will double as trials for the technology.”
“I see your argument, Cam, but can you give me a reasonable time frame that I can to take to the general?”
Camden let out a slightly crazed laugh.
“No…these are theories, I’m not even sure where to begin in building a functional space-bending flight mechanism,” he said. Ganesh threw his arms up again, looking a little defeated.
“You’ve got to at least try, Camden.”
Camden took a long drink from his glass, then ran his fingers through his damp hair.
“Do you know of the engineer, Krell?” Camden asked.
“You mean Rhys Krell? The murderer? Isn’t he crazy?”
“Well, now, that depends on your definition of crazy. If you think being an obsessive-compulsive psychopath who sometimes goes on killing sprees is crazy, then yes, he’s crazy. But if you take into consideration that he might be the only man on the planet with the ability to come up with a design to turn my ridiculous theories into reality, then no…he’s not crazy at all.”
“Dammit, Cam! This is not going to be easy, getting a man like that out of lock-up, if it’s even possible at all. If we bring Rhys Krell here, I’m going to end up responsible for the loony. Is he even lucid?”
“I hear he has his moments,” Camden replied. “If he’s unstrapped from his table more often, I’m sure he’d do great.” Camden quickly brought his glass to his lips and raised his eyebrows. Quinn laughed out loud, not being able to help himself. Ganesh reached over and grabbed Quinn’s glass and took a gulp.
“I will see what I can do about this Rhys Krell, but you’d better keep working on a back up plan,” Ganesh said and stood up. Quinn followed his lead and the two men left.
“See you tomorrow, old friend,” Camden called after them with a vengeful grin on his face. Rhys Krell would make Ganesh’s life a living hell, but Camden had not lied about him. If anyone could build a physics-defying machine, it was Rhys.
A few minutes after Ganesh and Quinn left, Camden pulled out some paper and started making sketches. He drew a prototype, made notes, then scratched over it and crumpled the paper. He repeated this drawing, scratching, and crumpling for the next three hours, so that wads of paper surrounded his chair. His eyes grew red and strained, but he kept working, all for the sake of his freedom. Finally, he managed to produce an idea that he felt worthy of avoiding his scribbles and crumpling. “Maybe…” he said to himself. Camden put the single sketch in a folder that he left on the table and went to bed.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Tyrine
Since the morning Maeve Daire met Ganesh in his kitchen, she decided to make herself unavailable for any new assignments, in case he needed her. He was the closest thing she had to a family and he came first. Anyway, she had been in the assassin spy game long enough that she could call her own shots. The respect she owned hadn’t come easily. She’d been a puppet for a lot of men for a long time, but once it was clear that she was the top requested agent in her line of work, she decided to stop taking other people’s shit. Maeve did only the jobs she wanted to and charged a fortune. She got away with it probably, mostly out of fear. The last man who tried to push her around ended up missing, with his bank accounts drained. Not a shred of evidence pointed to Maeve, but no one pursued the case either. Lately, she had taken a series of assignments to discover and eliminate Tyrinian spies who had infiltrated the government.
Maeve always prided herself on her ability to not develop personal feelings about her targets or their causes, but her last assignment had changed her…or maybe it was just Naja. After seventeen years of working in her field, she was surprised by her feelings, which came out of nowhere. It happened one night over dinner about three weeks into the assignment. Maeve had been playing the part of adoring girlfriend to Naja Pinure, a high-ranking government official, so she could hack his personal files while he slept. The sex was better than with most of her targets and she didn’t get the disgusted shiver that usually ran through her body afterward. Normally, very hot showers and very hard liquor drowned the feeling and calmed the shiver, but with Naja, she felt fine, contented even. It frightened her, because the peacefulness she was experiencing in his
gentle arms was brand new. But that night at dinner, he opened up to her in a way no target ever had. He was honest with her about who he was, and for the first time in her life, she wanted to be honest with him too. That would have to wait though, until she was finished with her investigation and his time came for elimination, when all of her targets learned her truth. She usually struck when they were naked, drunk, and vulnerable. It proved to be the method that required the least exertion from Maeve, although she’d had her share of hand to hand combat. She preferred not being hit, cut, or shot at if she could help it, because her appearance was her best weapon and scars were disarming. They led to questions that made her less desirable and efficient.
From that night until the end of the assignment, the topics of their conversations had turned to Tyrine and the uprising. Maeve listened with sincerity as he spoke with a passion about the repression of his people and the damage to the region’s infrastructure that Maeve’s sgovernment had caused for years on end. Now, with a few strong leaders in place and the strategic infiltration almost complete, the Tyrinians were ready to make their move. Maeve began to sympathize with Tyrine and tried as hard as she could to put all of it out of her mind. She had always been above the politics, living off the grid and forming no opinions of the government’s policies and actions. It was easier to do her job that way. She didn’t care about what was right or wrong…until Naja.
Naja was like no one she had ever known. He loved her with a pureness that held no judgment. He was dedicated to a point of foolishness about helping the people of Tyrine escape their oppression, no matter the cost. She found that beautiful about him, even letting herself get caught up in it at times. But it was always in her mind, knowing that his pure love would turn to disgust if he knew who she really was, what she had done, and what she was meant to do to him. Sure, shame and even guilt, were a part of the job, but she had never before truly hated herself for who she was. Now, with him, she experienced self-loathing for the first time ever. It started one night after an exquisitely passionate session of lovemaking. Naja was sleeping soundly with a smile on his face. Maeve sat beside him curled up in his soft cream-colored sheets staring at his sweet face. She noticed the teardrops on the pillow before she even realized she was crying. The date had been set for his life to be over. She had been with him now for four months and he only had a week left, longer than originally intended. She had been dragging out the assignment and her employer was getting impatient. The longer he was alive, the more information was being delivered to the leaders of the Tyrinian uprising.
Naja had trusted Maeve so completely that she even crossed the border with him to do his informant duties to the Tyrinians. She was impressed with the information he was able to gather undetected and without the training she had. He told them that the immediate threat to Tyrine was some sort of new weapon made from a type of indestructible rock from Myris. This small piece of intelligence led the Tyrinians to move their date of attack up sooner than six months, ready or not. They had no choice and would stand no chance if the new weapons were deployed against them. After that meeting, Maeve did some digging of her own, which is when she found Ganesh on the government watch lists. She, too, became frightened of these machines. The more she learned, the more she understood that they had the potential to completely alter the known way of life for everyone on the planet. She had been able to learn, in just a few days, more about the weapons than Naja had discovered in months. She wished she could share it with him, but as she sat there on his bed with her long blond hair falling over her shoulders and stroking his hair, she was glad she didn’t. His life would be over soon and she was not willing to reveal herself and jeopardize the last couple of days of being with him in pure bliss. It was her most selfish act. She made up her mind that after her assignment was over, she would deliver the information she had collected to Naja’s contact herself. She was a much better spy than he was anyway. Maeve got out of bed and forfeiting sleep, spent the remainder of the night wrapping up the information retrieval on Naja’s traitorous activities. This gave her a clear mind and one week of loving him as honestly as she was able to. It was the best week of her life.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Handling It
Dana had done a remarkable job of keeping the embryos alive for over a month and where Lee had failed, she had succeeded. They were stronger and healthier, according to Lee’s note comparison from his first attempts. The true test would come tomorrow, when they reached the stage in which the embryos always died. Lee was confident they would survive this time with his new nutrient formula and Dana’s constant nurturing. Their environment had just not been satisfactory to the tiny creatures in the previous trials and though not much had changed, they were thriving at a stage where before they would have been weakening.
“What will you do with them if they live? Dana asked.
“Use them for the next phase of the experiment. Their altered genes will be ideal,” Lee answered.
“You do realize that they will be real babies don’t you? And what is the next phase anyway?”
Lee didn’t answer right away but seemed thoughtful.
“We will discuss the next phase when we come to it,” he said.
Dana got the notion he was hesitant to share his plans with her which meant that he wasn’t sure if she could yet handle his final goal.
“Lee, you can tell me things. I won’t run away screaming, especially since I can’t go anywhere…unless…you’re afraid I might try to stop you.”
Lee looked down and adjusted his glasses, clearly taken aback that she could tell what he was thinking.
“Is it so bad?” she asked.
It was so bad, but Lee made a snap decision to let her in on the full scope of the project anyway. She was right, she had nowhere to go and he could certainly use an extra pair of hands on the next phase. Camden, who was on board with phase one, would have never conceded to phase two, but Dana was different, her ambition muted her morality. And if the project was too much for her to accept, she could be physically overpowered.
“I will tell you,” Lee said. “These embryos are not destined to grow past a certain point.”
“What!! So you will just kill them?” Dana’s reaction was stronger than she had intended.
Surprisingly though, Lee remained calm and continued.
“No. No. They will be held in a stasis, preserved for study and DNA extraction. I need them alive, but obviously I cannot have babies here.”
“Hmmm,” Dana replied. Lee was agitated that he could not tell what she was thinking.
“It must be this way,” he added.
Dana took a couple of deep breaths and folded her arms across her chest.
“I’m glad they will not die,” she said in a soft voice and stared quietly for a moment in the direction of the little creatures that had become such a large part of her new life here. They were living beings who responded to her singing and her warmth. She’d spent time every day holding each tube close to her body.
“And how will their DNA be used in phase two?” Dana asked.
“I need living samples with my specific gene alterations…to supply the cells when I find the right mixture to re-animate tissue samples, what you were working on before the embryos. Then the process can be applied to create clones of specific samples. There is a slight possibility of accelerating the growth rate, and then I will employ the memory transfer, which is still in quite a primitive stage of development.”
“Lee…are you talking about raising the dead here?” Dana asked with a horrified expression. Lee opened his mouth to respond, but said nothing more. He closed his mouth and shifted his eyes away from her.
“Well, that’s just…that’s just…well, I don’t know what that is.” Dana chewed on her finger and started walking in circles. “Why would you do that? I mean, I guess there are a hundred reasons why, but the thought of it just makes me want to throw up!”
Lee was not pleased at all with her reaction
and checked out of the conversation.
“I am going in the back to work. You need to monitor the project now. Tomorrow is crucial.”
Lee stomped off in a huff. Dana stood there with her mouth gaping debating whether or not to follow him and force him to continue the conversation. She understood why he hadn’t shared this with her before and if she wasn’t trapped here like a rat, he might never have told her. Her lab duties could be performed without needing to know the desired outcome. For that, she felt special. I wonder if Camden Riles even knows, she thought.
Dana had a difficult time concentrating on her work that afternoon. She even considered letting the little embryos die rather than complete their strange destiny, but she knew Lee would not forgive her for that. And since she was responsible for that government detective’s death, she needed his sanctuary. She would be locked up for years, not to mention the interrogation she would be put through about whatever was in the case that now resided in a locked lab and occupied most of Lee’s time. Dana still wasn’t privy to those secrets and after her reaction today, didn’t expect to be anytime in the near future. She had a hunch Bearden knew and that, combined with Lee’s revelation, made her stomach twist and contract. Dana had never felt so alone in her entire life. While she adjusted protein levels in the little tubes she thought about how uncomfortable it must have been for Lee to speak so openly to her. She wished she hadn’t looked so disturbed by what he had to say. The isolation was clearly affecting her ability to keep a level head. But raising the dead was way beyond anything she’d mentally prepared herself for when she got the job. She wondered what his motive was. Why would someone who doesn’t care to be around people choose to create so much life? Maybe there is no motive, maybe he just picked the most impossible thing he could think of and ran with it. Although, Lee is too purposeful to not have a reason. Her mind wandered around the rest of the day and most of the night. She mostly wanted justification for her actions here, now that she knew where they were leading.