Paradise Reclaimed

by Raymond Harris

  David scoffed. “Not that anyone would believe us, eh?”

  “No,” replied Akash, “although you might get traction on some of the crazier realms of the net.”

  “Which I’m guessing you monitor closely?” asked Archimedes.

  “Yes, very closely. You’ll be introduced to Aviva, our head of security. As I said, you will be fully informed. I wasn’t joking when I said I was the head of a conspiracy. I do suggest that if you are contemplating leaving you do so now. Past a certain point there can be no turning back. I want to make that clear.”

  “It’s all very cloak and dagger, MI5 and all that,” said Archimedes.

  “I can assure you that MI5 know nothing about this. None of them can ever know. There’s too much at stake.”

  “What, the future of humanity bro? David scoffed again.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what is at stake.”

  It was Li Li who spoke next, surprising everyone with a confident, authoritative tone, despite her softly spoken French accent. “Obviously you have made a breakthrough in quantum teleportation?” She paused to allow him to object. He nodded and she continued as if she had never once had a doubt. “I must also assume that the technology you use is a source of huge energy and that this has military applications, hence the exceptionally high degree of security?”

  Akash raised his eyebrows at such a precise question. “Yes, catastrophic applications: the ability to create a nuclear explosion at any point in space without warning. There is no known defence. Are you familiar with high energy particle physics?”

  “It’s a hobby,” she said almost cheekily. “I know enough to know that you have broken some fundamental laws…”

  “Except of course, that they were never laws. It turns out the universe is far more complex and yet far more simple than the current models suggest.”

  She nodded. “Well then, I look forward to finding out more.”

  All eyes were on her as she stood. In that instance the power balance shifted in a disorienting manner. How could one so young command such attention?

  35

  Prax

  He watched the sky as Torv brought the dart to a stop high over their heads. He was startled as she rolled off the dart and began to plummet to the ground in free-fall. She twisted and turned before righting herself moments before she was due to hit the ground. Then impossibly, she slowed to a halt before touching down ever so gently.

  “I told you, no need for parachutes,” she said to Tojo. “I want to try from a much greater height next time. Imagine the surprise of a platoon falling out of the sky.”

  He nodded. “Possibly, but we need to adjust for the build up in acceleration and build in an automatic function, no last minute stops. You were just showing off to Prax.”

  She shrugged her shoulders with indifference. “These are the types of armaments that will be available to the expeditionary teams,” she said. “They’re small enough to fit on the new jumpers.”

  “I assume bigger armaments can be designed,” he asked Tojo.

  “Of course, we’ve run a number of scenarios, but again, much of that is classified. We’ve shown you these because your jumper will be similarly armed when you go to Earth and you will need to start to familiarise yourself with them.”

  He looked across at Torv who was standing with her hands on her hips, smiling a little too mischievously.

  “I see, well very impressive. I don’t know what to make of it all. It’s a lot to digest.”

  Tojo smiled conspiratorially at Torv, “shall we now blow his tiny brain?”

  She smiled and nodded. “Turn around magnus,” she said.

  Suddenly he was nervous. He was finished with being startled. He turned slowly and looked around him. They were close to the tree line but he could see nothing. He looked down at his feet to look for anything crawling, he looked to the sky and then back at Torv totally confounded.

  “You can reveal yourself girls,” she said in a normal voice, as if she were speaking to people close by. But he had seen nothing. He turned and a chill went up his spine as he detected movement in front of trees, except he couldn’t make out shapes. Laughter broke out as his mouth opened in shock. Three small human figures were now walking towards him, their skin changing colour before his eyes.

  “Meet Sun, Mae and Riku,” said Torv.

  He remained silent as they came closer, revealing their bright orange bird eyes, their skin a kaleidoscope of colour. “How long have they…”

  “The whole time,” said Tojo. “You walked right past Riku at one time. She almost burst out laughing.”

  “But, what? How?” He looked at Torv for an explanation.

  “Ask the girls, they can speak,” she said smiling broadly.

  “Chromatophores,” said the girl on the left as she changed her skin colour to match his own, almost looking normal except for her long limbs, small nose and hairless head.

  “Our parents are geneticists…” said the girl in the centre, changing her skin colour to a pale brown and revealing that she looked identical to her sister.

  “A genetic sequence borrowed from the northern trickster…” said the girl to the right, changing her skin to a uniform purple colour to match the grass, also revealing that she too was identical.

  “The most sophisticated use of colour changing ever known…”

  “So far…”

  “Better than anything on Earth, or Eden.”

  “Maybe in the whole wide universe…”

  “And you are triplets?” he asked.

  They nodded, bored by such an obvious question. He looked to Tojo for help but he shrugged his shoulders and directed Prax’s attention back to the girls. He stumbled, embarrassed to ask the obvious question.

  “Do we unsettle you?” asked the girl in the centre.

  “A little,” he offered apologetically.

  “It’s okay…”

  “…we understand.” With that they changed skin colour again to a uniform light brown.

  “We can control it…”

  “At will…”

  “When we were young we couldn’t, but now we have full control,” said the girl on the left. Another chill went up his spine as vivid red and green lines rolled up her body and returned to light brown just as quickly.

  “But why?” he stammered.

  “Because we can…”

  “Because it’s fun…”

  “Because it was endorsed a few years ago,” offered Tojo. “There was a conference of young geneticists and they did a workshop on future enhancements. They provided a wish list. Colour shifting was one of them. It will be offered to everyone eventually.”

  “But I haven’t heard of it,” he complained.

  “Like I said, everything is moving fast, including genetics. The human form is changing, improving. It’s not the only enhancement these girls have.”

  “We can withstand greater variations of temperature…”

  “Cold, heat…”

  “We only need four hours sleep…”

  “We are faster, stronger…”

  “See into the infrared end of the spectrum.”

  “Smart, like you…”

  “We feel less pain…”

  “We mature earlier…”

  “We look nine but we are five years-old.”

  “We will live longer.”

  “Riku has a penis…”

  “And we have enlarged clits…”

  “Our pleasure is enhanced…”

  “Multi-orgasmic…”

  “More efficient release of dopamine…”

  “We do not suffer stress…”

  “I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “Back up… Riku is a boy?”

  “No, female, xx, with a penis.”

  “Show him…”

  Riku steeped forward and pointed to her crotch. “Look close, it’s permitted,” she commanded with authority. He bent down and she thrust her hips forward. He didn’t understand what he was seeing. At fi
rst glance she appeared to be a girl until she pulled apart her vulva to reveal a closed area of skin where a vagina should have been and what appeared to be a large clitoris, which she began to stroke until it started to engorge and then protrude a least six inches, so that it looked impossibly large. “It retracts into my pubic region and I have internal testes,” she said in a matter-of-fact manner.

  “We are different too,” the others said in unison, thrusting their hips forward to reveal a similar anatomy, except that when they parted their vulvas they had the same large clitoris with a urethra and a small vaginal opening.

  “And you are sexually active?” he asked surprised.

  “Of course,” they answered in unison.

  “Our psycho-sexual development is advanced…”

  “Sophisticated…”

  “We could please you, but we are not permitted…”

  “There are ethical considerations…”

  “Your age?” he asked rhetorically, assuming that was the answer.

  “No, because many are not ready…”

  “Are not at the same psycho-sexual level…”

  “You are ahead of most people?” he asked, shocked.

  “Yes.”

  He was stunned into an embarrassed silence.

  The girl in the centre changed the subject. “Some of our internal organs are different…”

  “Better…”

  “More efficient…”

  “We can eat more things…”

  “Digest more…”

  “Drink less…”

  “We only eat once a day…”

  “We are a new species…”

  “Maybe…”

  “But that means you that you can’t successfully breed with humans,” he objected.

  “We are human…”

  “We will ovulate soon…”

  “Riku will fertilise us…”

  “Perhaps in a year she will produce seed.”

  “And we will produce ova.”

  “There are others, younger, with different geneatrices…”

  “We are triplets, clones. The first.”

  “Soon all will have the same enhancements.”

  “We like them.”

  “They are logical.”

  He was shaking his head, confused because their anatomy defied what he knew about sex selection. “But how does Riku have a penis if you are identical triplets?”

  “Androgen therapy in utero…”

  “All foetuses are the same sex until three months. It is the androgens that change the genital cells to male, if not, remain female…”

  “Our genome is more flexible…”

  “Technically we are intersexed, intentional congenital androgen hypoplasty.”

  “We are a new sex…”

  “When we grow, xy, xx, xxy, boy, girl…”

  “We will look the same…”

  “No physical sex differences…”

  “Strength…”

  “Height…”

  “Bone density…”

  “Psychologically…”

  “No weaker sex…”

  “We won’t have breasts…”

  “We’ll still lactate…

  “Riku will be able to lactate too.”

  “Androgynous?” he asked.

  “Yes,” they said in unison.

  He shook his head again. His mind had been blown and he was in a state of shock.

  “You’ve missed an obvious question,” said Torv. He turned and looked at her. “What are they doing here?” she said.

  He was confused again and looked at Tojo. “Torv is training them,” he said.

  “As assassins…” said one.

  “Yes, al-hashshasin…”

  “Ninja…”

  “Killers,” he objected. “At their age? Has this been approved?” he demanded of Tojo.

  “Absolutely. All the legal and ethical objections have been argued and defeated. Believe me, this has challenged a lot of people.”

  “We won’t always kill…”

  “Hardly ever…”

  “No, better to save…”

  “Prevent…”

  “Eliminate the obstacles…”

  “When there is no other choice…”

  “It’s what Tshentso wants,” said the girl on the left.

  “Yes, Tshentso asked us,” the other two said in unison.

  “She wants us on Earth…”

  “Soon…”

  “You may need us…”

  “Yes, you might need us.”

  “To protect Eden…”

  “To protect the future of humanity.”

  “To protect you.”

  36

  Akash

  He had planned to spend individual time with each of the team and wanted to speak to Li Li first. She beat him to it, ringing him in his office early the next morning. “We should go for a walk,” she said abruptly. “I’m in the lobby.”

  “Good, I had planned…”

  “Of course, as you must,” she interrupted, indicating that she was well aware of how the game was being played.

  She was waiting calmly, dressed in hiking shoes, jeans and a teal Universite Paris, Sorbonne hoodie, her jet-black hair in a ponytail. At a distance she looked like any ordinary Chinese student, yet there was something about her that focused his attention. He supposed she looked pretty in a generically Asian sense, but that wasn’t it. It was the way she commanded the space around her. Even at a distance she looked confident, in charge, unafraid – as if she were exactly where she was supposed to be.

  “It’s too nice to be indoors don’t you think? I want to breathe the Himalayan air,” she said as he approached, her smile reassuring and slightly flirtatious.

  He nodded. “Sounds perfect.”

  “I spent most of last night searching your intranet for your papers and the reports of the other missions. I was pleased at the speed, instantaneous, but if I am correct, you have also transcended quantum computing?”

  He was startled by her deduction. “Yes, you are correct. How did you know?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “It follows. Information is energy; energy is information. If you have cracked quantum teleportation then this means that you can teleport data, qubits, non?”

  “Yes, you are correct. We do not use digital or quantum for our internal communications. Although we do use quantum machines to translate ordinary digital data.”

  She nodded. “No hackers…”

  He paused, suddenly suspicious that she was probing him.

  She picked up his hesitation immediately and smiled seductively. “Yes, you are right to be cautious, I have friends who are hacker activists. You have heard of Matrix?”

  He raised his eyebrows. Matrix were a new political hacker group that had claimed credit for some startling breaches of corporate security, including siphoning corporate funds into various charities. Unlike some earlier groups such as Anonymous, LulzSec and the environmentally based Decocidio, no one knew who they were. “Yes,” he said softly. “Although I find the name is a cliché.”

  “Of course, but it is meant to be ironic, non? Oh, don’t worry, they are not so interested in Shunyata, you are not raping the planet and financing coups, but they have looked and noticed you are well protected: too well protected. Clearly you have created a false digital presence?”

  “Too well protected?”

  “Yes, of course it is,” she said sarcastically. “When you go deep enough most global corporations have a similar profile of secrets; the same offshore tax havens, the same hidden political agendas and black budgets, the same network of lobbyists and bespoke foundations. You are a little too clean.”

  He responded defensively. “I thought Aviva had considered that.”

  “But you are not the only one running a conspiracy. Matrix are not your average politically naïve, egotistical adolescent getting high on breaking codes. Perhaps you will appreciate my candour when I tell you they are insi
ders, not outlaws. They are very smart people, people who may be smarter than your Aviva.”

  “They? You say that as if you are not a member?”

  “No, I am a good friend, that is all and you have my word that I will not tell them about this, although, if you wish to speak to them I can arrange a meeting.”

  There was an uncomfortable pause in the conversation as they walked down the hotel driveway toward the Thimpu River. He realised that she was allowing him the time to digest her revelation. He decided to change the subject, knowing that they would return to it at some point. “So tell me a little about your family in Paris. I understand you have had an interesting childhood?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. They both knew this was small talk but she was prepared to indulge him whilst they walked. “So, what do you want to know that you do not already know from your profiling? I assume your Aviva has been thorough?”

  “That only tells me what others think is important, not what you think is important.”

  “I see, well my family were wonderful, supportive. I could not have been who I am without them. They are progressive bourgeoisie Parisienne, a little bit bohemian. My adoptive mother was a classical dancer, which is how she met my genetic mother, who was a dancer on a cultural exchange tour with the Chinese National Ballet. When the DGSE informed them that my father had been detained and advised that my mother seek asylum, they did not hesitate to help. They were like a second family, so when she died, naturally they adopted me. My French father is an academic, a curator at the Pompidou. We went to concerts, plays and exhibitions. I have an older adoptive sister and brother, Honoré and Anton. They are talented too. She is a singer and he is an actor. She has an African boyfriend. Anton is gay. My family has many extraordinary and talented friends: artists, intellectuals, philosophers, politicians, rock and roll musicians. My uncle is married to a famous French actress. We travelled - to Spain, Morocco, Tahiti, St Martin. My mother’s sister is a naturist and they own a holiday house at a big naturist camp on the Atlantic coast and during summer we often visited them and ran around naked. I have seen my parents make love and I stumbled across Anton’s gay porn collection when I was eight. I am still a virgin, although I have kissed both a girl and boy, had my pussy licked by both and returned the favour. I have been having wine with my meals since I was eight. The first time I got really drunk I was twelve. I have smoked marijuana, tried ecstasy and have been waiting for the right moment to try hallucinogens – LSD, peyote. I assume that is the type of detail that is not on your biography?”