EVO Universe 1: The First

by Kipjo Ewers

  “All right!” she held her hand up, “All right…”

  She wiped away tears of frustration, and turned giving in; there was nothing to think about, her life was worthless in comparison to the life of her daughter, and she did not want Agent Armitage’s blood on her hands either.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  What she did not know was that Armitage remained locked in his cell along with a very much alive Charles Hampton, behind the cameras; Armitage removed his face to reveal one of the many agents of the Director standing in for him. The Shock Troopers lowered their weapons upon Agent Slater’s command.

  A technician in the room reported, “Feed has been looped…all clear…”

  Agent Slater walked over to the little girl still brandishing the blade looking down at her with a smile on his face, “See? Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? All make believe…”

  The little girl doesn’t answer him as she looked around with a now fretful look on her face unclear why she is in this place alone without her parents, and with no knowledge that her real parent was about to lay down her life for her.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Back at the lab, Sophia with no assistance stepped in and laid on the table, she could feel the cold of the steel through the thin skintight layer she had on making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Cautiously the technicians came over and tried to position her body to align the ports of her suit to the ones on the table.

  They called on the help of some of the guards to assist in moving her due to her immense weight despite still having a somewhat small frame. As her exterior ports fell into the interior ports of the table, a technician flipped open a panel on the table, typing in a sequence code activating the table, which proceeded to lock all of the ports together, fastening her to the table via the bodysuit. The guards that assisted the technicians joined the rest of their squad watching with their guns partially raised as the technicians applied the harness, restraints and finally the helmet itself.

  Lights on the helmet, the harness and each of the restraints came on serving a double function of both keeping her restrained during the procedure while constantly checking her vital signs.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Back at his observation deck, Director Rosen was once again smiling as Doctor Zimmermann oversaw the final preps before the operation.

  “You see everything is fine,” the Director gestured to Ms. Barrett, “All she needed was a little motivation…”

  “Would you have done it?” Ms. Barrett nervously asked, “Murder the General’s granddaughter like that?”

  “Yes, I would have…,” he said with no hesitation.

  The fact that he did not flinch, or pause to think about the question unnerved Ms. Barrett; she tried her best to hide it.

  “Does it trouble you Ms. Barrett? Are you having thoughts?” the Director asked.

  “No sir…not at all…” Ms. Barrett answered with almost no hesitation.

  “Very good,” he said cheerfully, “I do value your services…wouldn’t want you to miss another Administrative Assistant’s day…Dr. Zimmermann whenever you are ready.”

  “Subject is secure…vital signs are online and monitored,” Dr. Archifeld Zimmermann gave the order; “Activate fields and prepared to close and lower the containment unit.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The lights on the helmet, harness, and restraints brighten as she now felt immense pressure on her skull, wrists, ankles, and chest. It was similar to the field in the restraints she had on, but a lot more powerful.

  “No wonder the damn country is going broke,” she muttered to herself, “They’re making crazy shit like this…”

  It was a joke to take her mind off what going to happen next, she knew what they were planning. They needed actual blood samples and fresh DNA where they could extract a pure form of the virus within her. In order to do that they would have to pierce her near impenetrable skin, and with no anesthesia on the planet capable of knocking her out, it meant she was going to feel every bit of it, which meant it was going to hurt…at lot.

  As the hatch closed and the pod lowered into the floor, she said one final prayer with the time she had left.

  “Lord…thank you for taking me this far…thank you for letting me see my little girl…,” she prayed earnestly as tears fell from her eyes, “Thank you for giving a sinner like me a little more time, even though she had vengeance in her heart. Now I ask of you one more favor…if my road ends today…please…spare my little girl…this same fate…please…”

  “Begin super heating syringes and moving them into position,” directed Dr. Zimmermann.

  What Sophia did not know was the pod she was in would lower closer to the atomic fusion reactor, which powered the entire facility. The power of the reactor channeled into the cylinder, and into the pod itself where it superheated spike like syringes within the ports of the table. The power of the reactor would also deliver the force needed to drive the syringes into her body. She could feel the heat building up behind the table.

  “Iridium syringes had been plasma superheated to 3.2 million degrees Fahrenheit, estimated 85 tons of psi force for penetration,” reported the technician to Dr. Zimmermann.

  “Initiate injection…now,” ordered Dr. Zimmermann.

  A press of a button casted Sophia into hell; white pain could not describe the sheer agony she felt as each of the plasma super-heated syringe spikes pierced her arms, legs, and back, each one straight down to the bone. It was so excruciating she was barely able to scream or cry; tears poured down her eyes as she whimpered while her body shook violent from the spikes roasting her body from the inside.

  “Doctor…extraction syringes have successfully pierced subject’s skin,” informed the lab technician, “Blood pressured has spiked to 200 over 190.”

  “Super-cool syringes,” directed Dr. Zimmermann, “and then proceed with the sample extraction.”

  “Yes sir…” the lab tech acknowledged.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  With another couple of computer key strokes, Sophia went into spasm-like convulsions as the spikes within her body went from heat almost equivalent to the sun to sub-zero temperatures; she could see her breath with every exhale. She wished she could black out, but her regenerative healing was keeping her awake through the whole ordeal as it fought to heal her.

  She then felt it, fluid sucked from her body at a very fast rate, each syringe attached to a thick tube that ran from the table in the pod, through the cylinder it was attached to, down to a secured lab filling five two-gallon canisters of her blood.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Samples successfully being extracted,” reported the lab tech, “subject’s blood pressure has lowered, but remains slightly elevated.”

  “Extraordinary,” the doctor said to the Director, “She has already filled up each of the canisters half way…her regenerative capabilities are unparalleled.”

  An emergency message sensor appeared on one of the lab technician’s screen in charge of periodically monitoring the pod.

  “Sir! Something is dissolving the syringes within her body,” nervously informed the lab maintenance technician.

  An on-screen x-ray scan showed that sure enough the Iridium syringes, one of the hardest metals known to man appeared to be slowly eroding within her body.

  Dr. Zimmermann turned to the Director, “Her body is going into defense mode…trying to protect itself…she will soon become stronger than the Iridium in her body.”

  “I think we’ve got enough out of her don’t you think Doctor?” the Director now taking control ordered the technicians, “End the extraction process…and reheat the syringes to maximum capacity.”

  “Yes sir,” obeyed the lab tech.

  Ms. Barrett turned away officially uncomfortable with the scene as Sophia let out a blood curdling scream to near insanity as the spikes were once again re-heated to scorching temperatures burning her from
the inside of her body. Instinctively she fought to break free, the restraints delivering kilotons of pressure to keep her restrained were now creaking and cracking as if they were about to snap any second despite her weakened state.

  “Fire the cranial spike and the flood the chamber,” ordered the Director.

  “Firing spike sir”, obeyed one of the lab techs.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  In an instant, Sophia’s eyes were widen and dilated as a heated spike from the headrest of the table fired through the helmet and pierced the back of her skull into her brain tissue. Her body went limp and consumed by the raw energy of the fusion reactor below now channeled into the pod for her destruction.

  Only her bodysuit designed to withstand the heat nearly equivalent to the sun remained intact as the rest of her burned slowly down to the muscle and eventually down to the bone. It was unclear if she felt anything after the spike pierced her skull.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Subject’s heart in cardiac arrest…subject has now flat lined…” reported the lab technician, “Heart Failure at 13:56…Officially brain dead at 13:58…Subject is officially deceased at 13:59 PM…”

  “Shall we stop, and extract more samples?” the doctor asked the Director.

  “No need,” the Director took a breath finally glad the whole ordeal was over, “We have acquired all of the samples we need, and we have her daughter…incinerate all remaining material.”

  Dr. Zimmermann motioned to the lab technician to increase the atomic fusion incineration to quicken the destruction of Sophia’s remains.

  Director Rosen with a “somber” look on his face turned his back to the screen, “Thank you Ms. Dennison…your contribution to your country will not be forgotten.”

  HEART BEAT…

  Director Rosen’s head slowly rose thinking either his hearing was off, or that he heard feedback from the audio speakers; but it happened again, and again becoming more powerful with each second.

  “What’s going on?” the Director asked for the first time visibly shaken and disturbed, “What is going on?”

  “Heart beat and vitals have returned and are increasing, systems show subject is regenerating rapidly, atomic fusion is not destroying her cells anymore,” the first lab tech nervously fired off.

  “Sir! The reactor is losing power!” rattled off a second lab technician.

  “Losing power?! How?! By how much?!” the Director frantically demanded to know.

  “By forty percent!” the second lab tech reported, “The subject is…”

  “I know what the subject is doing!” Director Rosen yelled back at him, “Cut the power, and tell me how she is doing it!”

  “We’re…we’re trying sir!” he said frantically, “Initiating emergency shutdown parameters!”

  Director Rosen looking over to a now terrified yet fascinated Dr. Zimmermann with his knuckles in his mouth muttering to himself as he ran a rain storm of calculations on how life found a way again. The Director marched over to the doctor grabbing him by his arm to shake him back to some form of reality in order to find out what the hell was going on.

  “Doctor…what… is… going… on?” The Director shook him demanding an answer, “You confirmed that the cells could be killed by high plasma based energy…fusion energy…because it did not have a solid form for her cells to analyze and defend against…what is happening?!”

  “It needed time…and we gave it to it…it needed time…” rambled the doctor.

  “What needed time?” he feverishly shook him to his senses.

  “Her body…we…we got it all wrong…” he said with an almost hysterical chuckle.

  “Make sense man,” the Director slammed him up against one of the machines.

  The doctor timidly looked up at him explaining, “We…we thought that her brain had developed an independent higher function calculating and instructing the rest of the body to create defenses. So if we destroyed the brain her body would die…but that’s not the case…each of her cells has its own…higher function like organic versions of our nanites but far more advanced, they work as a collective network, which means even if the vital organs fail, the functioning cells work together continuing repairs…and building defenses…”

  “But why the massive energy drain?” the Director demanded to know.

  “It…it needed time to analyze the threat attacking it,” the doctor continued, “Don’t you see? The cells breakdown the material in order to analyze it so that it can build future defenses, plasma rounds are pure energy unlike a bullet which is lodged in her body. The second the plasma struck her body, it caused damage burning and killing cells and then dispersed not giving her living cells time to analyze the attack and determine the best solution to defend against it. Energy however still has some mass to it! We’ve exposed her body to enough of it via the spikes and flooding the chamber giving it all the material it needed to analyze and come up with a final solution.”

  “What solution?!” the Director yelled frantically wanting a straight answer without the scientific jargon.

  “A…a new form of sustenance…” he finally revealed.

  The Director swallowed hard at the Doctor Zimmermann’s answer, “How is that possible?”

  “It’s basic science,” chuckled the doctor with hysterical fear, “Our bodies are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons, the same properties that are within atomic energy… the average human body can only generate between 10 and 100 millivolts of electricity, and with hers beyond any fatal ramifications…it’s the only logical choice.”

  Director Rosen went from being his calm, cool and collected self to a man who appeared to be having a stroke with pants full of fecal matter. At that, moment the emergency lights came on via the backup electrical generators, as the power to the fusion generator shut down entirely; but it was both clear and apparent….the damage was already done.

  “We didn’t kill her…we made her stronger…” trembled the doctor.

  “What do we do?” the Director shook the doctor one final time like an eight ball praying he’d give him the answer he wanted to hear.

  The doctor looked up locking eyes with Director to give him the only solution they had left, “We…run.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  Back within the pod it was dead silence, the inside was still smoking from the raw power it was flooded with to kill its current resident. Sophia continued to lay lifeless still locked in her badly damaged restraints despite readings dictating otherwise, her body once again fully healed, including her pierced skull and brain. The Iridium syringes dissolved completely within her body, processed by her cells. She survived an event no normal human being should have had to endure.

  Her face still appeared empty, the damage done irreparable despite her abilities. Until a faint blue light began to flicker in her eyes, and then grow.

  The pod she was in exploded emitting a raw blue energy that expanded taking out whatever was underneath it, namely the partially powered reactor and everything above and around it obliterating half the base while shaking the mountain it was in. It also forced the residence of Klamath and other towns to come out of their homes and places of business to view what appeared to be the destructive force of a miniature nuke ripping through the side of the mountain.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Outside the Black Bear diner, patrons and staff members walked out thunderstruck by the destructive force they just witnessed and the smoke now bellowing out of once volcanic mountain.