by PN Burrows
‘Prototype?’ Reb enquired.
‘Of the twelve bodies I have examined, I have noted four variations to the genetic alterations. They are, in truth, only using rudimentary genetic techniques, but in collaboration with evolutive serums and the rapid reproductive and growth rate of the humans.’ He spread his arms. ‘Well, you get something like this. Of course they have altered the skin, muscle and bone density, there are even more ribs. You might note, Reb, that none of your little toy gun bullets penetrated past the ribs. The blood coagulates much quicker to prevent rapid blood loss and the heart, with its cardiovascular system, is designed to compensate for the increased viscosity.’ He pulled a dark red heart from under a white towel. ‘See? This is four times the size it should be.’
The three men, all of whom were combat veterans, didn’t bat an eyelid at the site of the heart thrust under their noses.
‘Is there anything else pertinent to the investigation, Doc?’ the captain said with a hint of impatience.
‘As you discovered when you tried to interrogate the one Apate captured, they have no tongue. Scarring shows that it was removed early in the process, I’d say five months ago but the accelerated growth makes it hard to pin down an exact time. Shame she shot his arms off, as having gone back to the video feeds you can clearly see commands being exchanged with hand gestures. Maybe some form of sign language?’ Looking directly at the Captain, ‘Did he really charge at her with no arms?’
‘Until she shot one of his legs off. Interestingly none of them responded to pain in the way one would expect. The footage clearly shows that, no pun intended,’ droned the captain. ‘They showed a concern to only live long enough to finish the mission. We are assuming that they are connected with the Dia Kuklos hijack, but we have no solid basis for that assumption. They clearly had little understanding of the Dia Kuklos as they continued to run through after Bob reset it to Canopus. They didn’t know enough to drop any metal carried.’
‘That fits with my prognosis of limited intellect, which is mainly based on watching the feed as there is nothing detrimental or missing in the brain itself. I would say this is a symptom of using the prototypes before they were fully developed. Did you notice they were ill equipped for their size?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Another indication these amazing specimens were used ahead of schedule.’
‘They’re abominations, Doc, and the people behind this must pay,’ the sergeant blurted out.
‘Quite right, sergeant,’ the captain interceded, placing a calming hand on the sergeant’s shoulder. ‘Please continue, Doctor.’
‘Correct me if I am wrong, Doc, but what you are saying is someone is experimenting on human babies to breed a formidable soldier in six months?’ Reb asked, before the doctor could continue.
Holding up a small appendage on the corpse, the doctor continued. ‘Let’s say nine months for full maturity, the testes haven’t dropped yet and there are a few other indicators. Yes, some nefarious and very wealthy organisation is performing illegal procedures on the male offspring of an unaligned world. I will catalogue the list of illicit medical procedures, but as you will have realised any one of them gives you an extreme prejudice warrant to act.’
‘Thank you, Doc. Please let me recap to make sure I have got it right. It takes nine months to grow a full soldier who can withstand huge amounts of physical trauma, who is not afraid to die and as yet has an undetermined intellect.’ Putting his hand up to silence the doctor, he continued. ‘Not only do we have a duty to terminate this heinous atrocity on Earth, but we also have some unknown assailant breeding a secret army and a traitor in our midst,’ the captain finished.
‘I cannot comment on your traitor, Captain, but this is rather clever really. There are not many bipedal races that can breed as prolifically as the humans. They are unaware of the greater picture around them and are unable to defend themselves. Practically imbeciles by modern standards and they are genetically unadulterated. The perfect laboratory rat.’
‘Doc, your coldness scares me sometimes!’ Reb said in exasperation.
‘I am only giving you an analysis of the facts, Reb, I am not as squeamish as you Minerans.’
‘Ok, you two, knock it off,’ the sergeant said. He had known Reb and the doctor long enough to speak out of rank. The captain wandered over to the body and draped a sheet over it. ‘Doc, please show some respect, these poor souls have been plucked from their lives and unwillingly been experimented on and used as weapons. They are as much a victim as we are.’
‘Can you imagine how formidable they would be if you put armour on these guys?’ Reb enquired.
‘They will be a challenging opponent, Reb, but you just change tactics. We favour kinetic weapons out of tradition, but they are mere flesh and bone. We have various weapons that can liquefy them inside of their armour.’
‘There is something else,’ the doctor said, using one long arm to pick up a tray hidden behind the body. On it was the arrow that he had removed from Sam. A white cloth obscured the rest of the contents.
‘You recognise this, of course. You all saw the feed showing Sam being skewered to the steel block with it.’
‘Yes, we are aware of the implications of someone using an ancestral weapon, Doctor. Reb reported that it was some form of ceramic model designed to pass through the Dia Kuklos.’
‘That’s partially correct. The inner workings are a little more complicated and use composites of natural materials. As you know, someone, who is as yet unknown, took over the Dia Kuklos and shot Sam from the rear. What you are unaware of is that Reb wasting my cleansing fluid to create a wall of fire didn’t hold back the enemy for a second. These did.’ The Doc removed the white cloth with a flourish to show another nine arrows. ‘These ancestral arrows of yours are a nightmare to extract and I challenge you to clean and reset one. I had to put the heads in with some Gnarva ants to remove all the organic matter. They are really clever you know, using an excreted acid from their abdomens to break down the bone into a digestible jelly.’ He saw the sergeant try to supress a shudder and smiled. Interesting, he thought, he’s squeamish about insects, what does he feel about me?
‘Sorry, Doc, you have lost us. Are you saying the person who shot Sam also shot at,’ gesturing with his hand at the covered body on the table the captain questioned, ‘their own soldiers?’
‘I cannot say who shot at who, Captain. All I know is that I extracted eight of these from the heads of eight soldiers. This is what caused the front line of their advance to falter and not the wall of fire.’
‘There are ten on the tray, Doc, including Sam’s. Where did the extra one come from?’ Reb enquired.
‘A keen eye as always, Reb, and I am glad you asked,’ he replied with an iniquitous grin. ‘Please bear in mind the unknown shooter had less than a minute to fire these before we regained control or they relinquished control of the Dia Kuklos. Judging by the angle that it was protruding from the body of a soldier, he was shot in the leg whilst on the floor to prevent the shaft from opening up. He had previously been slain by a bullet to the head. This anomaly was out of context with the precision shooting that I had catalogued so far. Each of the other eight had gone through an eye socket. Upon further inspection I found this scratched into the surface. I am assuming that it is a message, albeit cryptic. I have sent scans of the shaft to cryptology an hour ago. Alas, so far to no avail.’ He held out the shaft for inspection. ‘Please be careful how you handle it, it is primed and ready to spring open.’
Reb took the shaft, holding it firmly at the front end. Holding out of the shadows that the three of them made whilst trying to see the text he saw §15412. ‘I’ve seen this section symbol recently.’ He walked to the doctor’s wall terminal, gestured with his hand to activate it and requested, ‘Show the markings found on the surveillance cameras that were taken from Sam Shepard’s room.’
A large portion of the wall illumi
nated showing the archived pictures of the tiny surveillance cameras that were used to monitor Sam.
‘It’s not definitive but that scratched § looks awfully like Sam’s hand writing,’ the captain said with trepidation in his voice. ‘You know this makes no sense, if things weren’t confusing enough.’ The captain sat on the edge of the table, oblivious or uncaring that he was next to the cadaver. The strain of the last few days showed on his already lined face.
‘When will he be available to talk, Doc?’ Reb asked as he passed the arrow back. The doctor held out the tray for Reb to place it back carefully.
‘Before we move on to Sam, I would like to obscure the picture further by adding that the sequence on the other side of the Dia Kuklos could not have happened within the fifty-three seconds that we lost control of it. I replicated the historic weapon used to fire these,’ he said, waving around an arrow as if it were an innocuous toothpick. ‘I modified it to increase the rate of fire and timed how long it would take to fire off nine shots and carve the message. Then you have to consider the pause between the initial shot and those that took down your assailants,’ he said, looking at Reb. ‘I speculate, the assassin was disturbed whilst shooting at Sam. The weapon has proven to be accurate and therefore there was no reason to miss. Further analysis indicates the only possible explanation is there must be a time dilatation on our side from their perspective.’
‘Wouldn’t multiple weapons solve this?’
‘The forensics on the shaft show identical micro abrasions indicating they were all fired from the same weapon.’
‘You’ve given us much to consider, Doc, thank you.’
‘As for Sam, I have concentrated the initial regeneration process on his respiratory system as I had to transfuse oxygenated cells into his blood to keep him alive. We have just finished rebuilding his face and we found another underlying problem which I had to correct, but nothing serious. His body will be numb and immobile for another day as I have not finished with his leg and shoulder. I suppose I could wake him if you can give me some preparation time.’
‘I’ll give you half an hour to prepare him, Doc, we need answers.’ The Captain said as he walked to the closed door. With a gentle swipe of his hand it opened with a fluidic grace by sliding silently into the wall. ‘Oh, Doc, I appreciate the effort to mask the corpse’s odour. Being soldiers it’s nothing we haven’t smelt before, but dear God, what is that smell?’
The Doc was clearly taken aback. ‘Oh, I thought you would like it. Lieutenant Kallistrate always smells of the small yellow flower from her home town, to mask her odour, I forget its name. I used the essence of the Capranulnka plant. It grows in the swamps near my brood’s dwelling. We use it in our wedding ceremonies, it also has excellent medicinal properties.’
‘You actually like this, Doc? I’d laugh but it would mean I have to take in huge lungfuls of this dreadful aroma.’ Reb reached up put his hand on the doc’s shoulder. ‘Wake him up, Doc, we’ll see you in the infirmary in a bit.’
The captain did a turn around to face the doctor. ‘Was there any temporal degradation?’
‘If you mean temporal displacement degeneration, no. They are from Earth at this point in time. I will have the results from the lab on trace particulates from the clothing, skin and lungs soon. Hopefully we can narrow down the region that they came from via pollen, pollution et al.’
‘Erm. That’s something I suppose. Oh, Doc, I suggest that don’t ever tell Lieutenant Kallistrate that she smells.’ Doing a second about-face he walked off.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The trio stood alongside Sam’s bed. The hair on his head had been shaved off and the new facial tissue still had a baby-pink look. It would be sensitive for a while, Reb reflected. He had been on the receiving end of Doc’s ministrations on a few occasions. The body was born with the genetic instructions to grow itself from a simple cell. It was surprisingly easy to convince it to rebuild itself. Convincing it to do so at speed is the hard and painful part.
On the whole the doctor had done, as he always did, a good job. For some reason hair follicles never grew back. If Sam had wanted, he could have had whiskers implanted into the new tissue later, allowing him to grow a beard across the whole of his face. Reb had had his whiskers removed decades ago. Not that he got much chance to grow a beard anyway, but that was another matter. One which Sam would stumble across, he thought with a smile.
Sam’s leg was out of the bed sheet and the regeneration unit was encouraging the body to build up the new bones and muscle. Doc would have localised pain relief affecting the area, otherwise Sam would be awake and screaming. The act of re-growing a nerve end at such a rapid rate was more painful than the event that caused the wound in the first place. A smaller unit was working on his shoulder, with a prong inserted into the wound. It would withdraw over the course of about eight hours, rebuilding the shoulder from the inside out as it went.
‘How long until he is on his feet, Doc?’ Reb enquired.
‘Two days as his body mass is much lower than yours, so it’s easier to repair. I am assuming this is due to Earth having a lower gravity.’
‘I noticed in the file that you lowered the gravity in any room that Sam entered so I followed your lead. The gravity in the infirmary will remain at Earth’s norm for a day or so. He will notice considerable discomfort elsewhere on the station. Do I have your permission to increase his muscle mass and strengthen his bones, Captain?’
‘Do what you can for him in the time frame you have specified, Doc. I need him on his feet and walking unaided. Oh, Doc, it might be advisable for you to stand back as he regains consciousness.’
‘Caution noted, Captain,’ he said, with a nod of his head. He opened a valve on the IV line to allow the anti-sedative through. When Sam had first come through the Dia Kuklos the doctor had never seen a real human before. He knew nothing of their chemistry, physiology or tolerances and the main database was of little help. It wasn’t until later that the information had come through from Minera. He secretly feared that he might have turned Sam into a cabbage. He stepped back from the bed after the small vial had emptied into the line and out of consideration for Sam dimmed the lights further. ‘You should have about five minutes with him before he’ll fall under again, but please give him a few seconds, Captain, he will be disoriented at first.’ He withdrew into the shadows.
‘Thank you, Doc.’
It took Sam a full minute and a half to open his eyes and only after Reb’s impatient prompting. Reb had seen movement under the eyelids and recognised that Sam was listening for clues as to his whereabouts without giving away his conscious state. The four occupants had remained silent, waiting for Sam to wake up. All he would be sensing is the noise and movement from medical devices on him, around the room and the faint hum and vibration of the station itself as well as the rustle of clothing nearby.
‘Open your eyes, Sam, you’re in the infirmary.’ He said, ‘I know you’re awake.’
‘Reb, is that you? I thought we’d both bought the farm,’ Sam said through his rebuilt mouth. He opened and closed his jaw as if it was stiff or wanted to click. ‘You stitched my tongue back in. Doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.’ His lids were only fractionally open. The dimmed lights seeming bright to his unaccustomed eyes. ‘I can’t move.’
Reb could see the strain of him trying to move his body in his neck and face. ‘Calm down Sam, you’re going to be fine. The doctor has immobilised you while he heals the rest of your body. You will be glad to know that he has fully repaired your face, although I am sorry but there was nothing he could do about your God-awful looks.’ He saw Sam smile. Humour in the face of adversity, helps every time.
‘I don’t understand, how long have I been unconscious?’
‘Less than two days, Sam,’ said the doctor. He was keeping out of sight, allowing Sam’s body to block his view. ‘I am your doctor. We haven’t bee
n formally introduced. Your physiology is quite interesting, I might write a paper on it. I don’t understand why you pompously called yourselves Homo sapiens though, Homo morionis would be more apt. I digress. I have repaired your respiratory system, mouth and face and we are still working on your non-life-threatening injuries of shoulder and leg. It might interest you to note that you had a large aortic aneurysm forming. If left undetected you would have had less than six months left. A silver lining to all this discomfort.’
Sam tried to look at Reb, the restricted movement in his neck making it awkward. ‘What happened?’
‘Thirty assailants made their way through the enclave. They must have had help.’ Reb’s voice sounded melancholic. ‘There are two entrances to the distorted space we call the Mineran Enclave. The one through the warehouse and a small path in the hills. The small guard post there had been neutralised with a sleep gas and the gates opened. Interestingly the traitor wasn’t willing to kill his own kind, but he or she did give away the location of a secret installation and aided interlopers. The computer had been programmed to see the interlopers as sheep and the outpost had enough vehicles to carry thirty people exactly.’ Reb looked into Sam’s eyes. ‘Sam, the only thing they did was come after you. They weren’t after the Dia Kuklos. In fact they seemed ignorant of its workings.’ He let those words sink in for a second.
‘Do you remember we temporarily lost control of the Dia Kuklos?’
Sam nodded, his eye looking towards the contraption on his chest. ‘When I got pinned to the cube.’