Nara

by M. L. Buchman

  “No. That’s not it.” Hank slapped the arm of the sofa. “It started with my sug—”

  “Forget it, Old Man. You missed your chance to tell this story and now you’re gonna have to live with my version. You know that I—”

  “Stop it, you two.” They both turned to look at Sicily who ignored them to give Ri her full attention.

  “The idea is very new and fragile as you can see. It is simple to say, though much less easy to do. We want to reengineer humanity.”

  “Shit. You can’t just dump it out like that. Christ, Sicily.” All her shipmates chimed in, but her attention didn’t waver.

  Ri watched her until the noise died down.

  “Like what? Give everyone more fingers?”

  The woman shook her head. “No. We are okay physically.”

  Hank spoke up, “Actually there are a number of things that we could fix. The design of the knee is quite one of the most foolish designs in animal evolution. And the lower back was never intended for upright bipedal locomotion. If we—” The last few words were lost in a mumble when Sicily clamped a hand over his mouth until he subsided.

  “We believe that there must be something we can do to our personalities to make us more, I don’t know, compatible? More sympathetic to one another? Less likely to kill, perhaps?”

  “You want to mess with our genetic code? Genetic engineering of a human is the greatest crime in the entire WEC.” This was crazy. Even the idea of it made her skin crawl.

  “Almost,” Hank pounced on the opening left by her reaction.” ‘Was the greatest crime’ would be more accurate. Past tense. The WEC no longer exists. And why not? Tell us one good reason to not try this. We haven’t come up with any.”

  “Samnal.”

  “An idiot with no sense of proper processes for testing a hypothesis. We test our solution thoroughly before we release it anywhere.”

  “But accidents happen. How can you isolate a wild bug?”

  Jane, the chief mechanic, cleared her throat. She was sitting at the charting table. Ri could see that the screen was covered with sketches of a laboratory.

  “We’re going to convert the starboard hold. A plas wall will divide the bay in half. The dirty lab will be built over the hold doors so that we can evacuate it into space if something gets loose.”

  “Along with anyone in there.”

  “We’ll convert some Martian envirosuits. They’re lightweight but will offer plenty of protection. We’ll make sure everyone inside stays tethered.”

  They were all edging forward on their seats clearly waiting for the next challenge to their idea. Jackson leaned against his wall wearing his big grin as if this were all his own doing. Perhaps it was, this was his crew and he had turned them into a team. They had clearly tackled this together.

  “Okay. You’ve been over every millimeter of this already. I’ll assume that you can do it safely. Who is going to walk into the far side of that lab?”

  Sicily poked her husband in the arm. “You’re too old to learn a new profession and you know it.” She echoed her husband’s earlier words.

  He grabbed her extended finger. “You’re only two years younger, girl. So no crazy ideas from you either.”

  A look passed between them that made Ri catch her breath. These two needed no changing to understand each other. A whole conversation clearly passed between them as their looks softened and their smiles grew. Their grip shifted until they were holding hands.

  “There they go again.” Donnie snorted in disgust. “To answer your question, bioengineers.”

  “Some specialist in the human genome?”

  “There aren’t any. We can build the lab. You need to provide the bioengineers. The men who see to the genetic livelihood of the biomes and ag-crops.”

  “And what am I supposed to tell them to do?”

  Donnie shrugged, “We hoped you could figure that out.”

  Chapter 26

  16 January 1 A.A.

  Ri watched the bioengineers tour the lab. What the Icarus team had achieved in twenty-four hours was nothing short of miraculous. The scientists made pleased noises as they milled about and inspected the ten workstations that lined the wall of the clean lab.

  She stood at the long plas window offering a clear view of the dirty lab. She hadn’t asked where all the gleaming equipment came from nor did the Icarus team volunteer any information. The airlock between the labs, still showing its R5 designation, presently had both hatches cycled open. The scientists filtered into the dirty lab and the sounds of their pleasure increased.

  It wasn’t until this moment that Ri wondered how they’d gotten the massive items aboard the Icarus at all. She knew the ship hadn’t moved. Then she realized that the only way was by going outside and risking being flung into space from the rotating ring. She turned to face them and could see that Jane, Jill, and Rolovsky were all looking especially pleased with themselves. They deserved to. At her nod, they positively glowed.

  Once the scientists, every bioengineer from the ship, were clear of the dirty lab, Jane closed the lock and inserted a small armature. It would now be impossible to open both doors either by accident or command.

  They were all quite crowded in the clean lab: twelve scientists, eight crewmembers, and herself. Kurt Bamker stepped before her, eyes bubbling with mirth.

  “So, now you have gathered us all together. And I shall not even ask where this equipment was liberated from, especially as I recognize several pieces that were in my lab when I locked it and retired last night. We will comment no further on that subject. And you did an exquisite job of teasing each of us to be here without letting any of us know the others were involved. Elegantly done, Chief Jeffers.” He bowed quite formally in a western style.

  “There is one question I must put forth.” He looked about him making sure he had everyone’s attention before focusing once more on her.

  “Why?”

  That a man famous for many words and notorious sloth at reaching the point would pose the most important question as a single word made her want to laugh. His kindly brown eyes looked at her from a face rounded and sagging with age. Ri realized that he was perhaps the oldest man aboard. He’d never intended to make it to the stars, he simply wanted to make sure mankind got well on his way.

  Ri looked at Jackson who simply waved his hand for her to speak and flashed one of his useless smiles.

  “Follow me,” Ri led them up the stairway out of the starboard hold to the main level and back down into the port hold where a large conference table had been set up. Bamker seated himself at the far end, the other engineers sorting themselves out for who got to sit closest to him. The crew sat along one wall.

  “The following information may not be discussed outside this ship by Captain’s orders even if you should meet her in the hall.” It was a half truth. By her order they weren’t allowed to discuss it aboard the Icarus either, but that bothered her less than she’d thought it would.

  She moved to the console at the head of the table and displayed the population curves. Within moments a surge of voices swelled to fill the room. Bamker, the first to recover, simply looked to Ri until the others had run down into silence.

  “I presume that since you have displayed this to us that it has been verified to be accurate.”

  Ri nodded, no more. The scientist would make an excellent poker player, there was no way to read his reaction.

  “And you clearly have a task in mind. Rather than playing lengthy guessing games, I will leave you to tell us that task.”

  She’d been so busy making up different stories to entice them here that she hadn’t given her opening statement much thought. She had searched for two of the scientists at length before she’d thought to check the databases. They numbered among the disappeared, not having logged into the system for days. It had become a part of her various ar
guments to bring them together.

  Now was not the moment to stand here looking stupid, which was exactly how she felt. She borrowed Bryce’s line from the first time they met. When they’d been busy insulting each other in his bar after she’d collided with him.

  “Can you make us better able to accept the illusion? The illusion that it really will be okay. That we can live together. Without killing one another.”

  “Accept the illusion?” Bamker spoke each word slowly before he sat back and crossed his arms. He scowled at her from beneath his thick, gray eyebrows.

  It wasn’t coming out right. She could almost feel what they needed, but couldn’t grasp it well enough to turn it into words, even for herself.

  Bamker turned to Jackson and raised one eyebrow who grinned in response.

  “Can’t you just intuit what the lady wants? What sort of a miracle worker are you?”

  Sicily jabbed him in the arm. “Shut up, Jackson.”

  Hank leaned forward. “What if we could all work together more easily? Somehow make us less intolerant.”

  “That’s the idea.” She nodded her thanks and turned to Bamker. “Yes, something like that.”

  He settled back into his chair and rubbed his chin. All of the other scientists kept their silence, though there was a fair amount of foot shuffling to be heard. She didn’t have anything more concrete to give them.

  “You wish us to alter the human mind in such a way as to make us all able to get along more comfortably.”

  She blushed hotly. In no way she could detect, but could certainly feel, the ship’s leading scientist had just called her a fool.

  “Well, my dear,” his tone became actively condescending, “what makes you think that a lab such as this one, as fine as it may be, will allow us to do that? We have no basis to start from.”

  There was a general grumbling among the scientists. She looked at Hank who was deep in thought and Sicily just shrugged her shoulders.

  “What I want, Kurt Bamker, is for you to work with me on this. I want all of us to work together. That’s the problem. I want you to facilitate humanity’s ability to work together. There must be some way to make mankind more able to tolerate the burden of being the last left of all the world.” She was on the right track. It wasn’t there, but it was close.

  “The World Economic Council believed that by removing people with criminal predispositions, Homo sapiens would become a more peaceful and healthy race. Well, they forgot about the huge effects of upbringing and environment. Or they chose to ignore them. We’ll never know.”

  Ri would bet Bryce could answer that, but she kept her silence.

  “Another factor is situational pressure,” Bamker’s voice now sounded of elder reprimanding a young ‘un of the Cadre. “Our situational pressure aboard Stellar One is exceedingly high and, yes, based upon your data, it is eating us alive. There is no amount of wishing that will make any difference.”

  He pushed his chair back as if making ready to leave. The other scientists began to follow suit until she slammed her palm down flat on the table. She leaned forward attempting to pin the burly man to his seat with her gaze.

  “Biblical Revelation happened out there. Earth was destroyed. We are most certainly not in Heaven despite being trapped in the heavens. We have to find a way to survive our situation. We need to… If I knew, I’d tell you. Truly I would.”

  They locked gazes for a long time until finally he pulled his chair back to the table and rested his elbows on the table.

  “So, you would have us alter humankind psychologically so that we will not feel the fear and pressure of confinement. No better description than that?” He didn’t wait for an answer.

  “Have you given any thought as to how we are to achieve this nebulous goal? It would require a complete understanding of the human genome.”

  He had to raise his voice to be heard above the fearful whispering.

  “You are aware that this information was outlawed in 2048? The first Human Genome Mapping Project took nearly a decade. Granted they were using tools little better than blunt swords to perform gene surgery. They did remarkably well. In that decade of effort they isolated a third of the genes and deemed the rest as parasitic or junk DNA.

  “The Second Human Genome Mapping Project was classified before it was completed. But the few documents that survived, to be handed down with less certainty of accuracy than the four gospels of biblical fame, indicate that much of the missing two-thirds involved human psychology and race memory. There is a rumor that this mapping was completed two decades later. That was using instruments more on the order of dinner knives.” He waved a negligent hand toward the bulkhead separating them from the lab.

  “Given the equipment behind us, we can perhaps compress that three decades of work into a single decade. It is a huge task, the human genome is information on an unprecedented scale. And to study and amass such a large volume of data will not help us, as that is ten years, not ten months.”

  Some memory jogged at Ri’s memory, but wouldn’t come clear as Bamker continued his lecture.

  “The WEC Premier, James Wirden, destroyed the last known copy of this information when he nuked Auckland. The undefined task you have assigned us is simply not possible in the lifespan we appear to have remaining to us.” He waved a negligent hand toward the table. “All this, I fear, was to no avial.

  Ri hung her head. It had all made sense when the Icarus team had made their proposal. Reengineer mankind to live more happily with each other. Now the idea was impossible. But it didn’t feel impossible, merely hopeless.

  “I know.”

  A wave of relief ran through her at the sound of Jackson’s voice.

  “Let’s just up the sex drive on everybody. That’s just a bunch of pheromones or whatever. Then we’ll all be too busy fucking to be unhappy.”

  Bamker simply scowled, but Ri kicked back her chair as she rose to her feet. She stalked over until Jackson was forced back against the wall.

  “If you’re going to be a complete bottom-dweller, just shut up and eat your shit in silence.” He barely showed any surprise. Maybe he was used to women yelling at him.

  As she turned toward the ladder out of the hold, Donnie leaned toward him and whispered loudly. “Dumb, Captain, even dumber than the villains in the old spacer vids. And that’s dumb.”

  Ri was halfway up the ladder before the word “villain” sunk into her brain. She glanced quickly at Bamker. Someone else kept referring to a villain. What was it? If only—

  She pointed at Bamker. “You get your equipment calibrated and start planning what should be done. I think I can provide you the how.”

  Ri turned without waiting for more than the look of surprise on his face to change into thoughtfulness.

  # # #

  R4U was quiet, which made sense for early afternoon. A few people were sitting around playing cards, but they had no mugs on the table.

  She backtracked and dropped down into L0. She trotted around to the Arctic and was just about to hatch back up to L1 when a splash of light shone around her. She stepped out of the way so that Bryce didn’t drop down on her.

  “Hi.”

  He stumbled back and would have fallen if there hadn’t been piping behind him.

  “Ri. Shit. I thought I was alone.” He looked really good standing there all disheveled.

  “I need to ask you a question.”

  He shrugged. “So ask.”

  Ri opened her mouth then closed it. She’d had to sidetrack Olias several times since the last meeting in R4U. He was very upset that Bryce didn’t exist in the databases and Ri had to drag him before the Captain to ensure Bryce’s anonymity. She wouldn’t put him past monitoring her movements. This was too dangerous to risk Olias monitoring microphones in the area.

  “C’mon. I want to take you somewhere.”


  He followed with no complaint and little more than raised eyebrows as she led him up to the core and down to the R5 airlock she’d almost used to accidentally disappear herself.

  Perhaps this hadn’t been such a bright idea. None of the standard suits adjusted properly to her diminutive size, but she refused to wear the brilliantly striped children’s suits. That was a little too weird.

  She was also sweating and the air conditioner was overworking. The water felt as if it was freezing the moment it left her pores. She fiddled with the suit controls once more, she’d only had one training session when she first came aboard. A blast of truly cold air made her fear she’d breached the suit, but they hadn’t even locked through into vacuum yet.

  Bryce reached over and slid the control on her wrist pad. The suit became far more comfortable and she nodded her thanks. After a moment, she realized that there was no way for him to see the gesture through the reflective helmet. She keyed the suit-to-suit frequency.

  “Thanks.”

  “You bet.” The laugh that lurked behind Bryce’s voice did little to make her feel better. Though it didn’t help how easily he moved through the lock, along the axis, and down to L1 of Ring 5. Unused to zero-gee maneuvering, she had to struggle to keep up with him until she was sweating once again. The suit, thankfully, was reacting normally, so she was merely warm and uncomfortably damp.

  At least the ring wasn’t spinning, Ri suffered no vertigo on the descent. Bryce clipped a work line from his belt onto a handy loop in the exposed structure of an unfinished wall and gave it a sharp tug. Ri clipped her own line onto his service belt and wiggled it to ensure the connection. In unison they kicked along a side corridor until they were on the main deck at the outer edge of the residence level.

  Here there were no gardens. No little benches arranged to look into space. The balconies that ranged up the structure of the ring were sharp-edged plas jutting outward with no railings. The windowless spaces were like the eyeless dead staring off into space. It was dead. Like the burned-out hulks that had been the great buildings of Nara. That had once been a bookstore. A home.