Outcasts and Gods

by Pam Uphoff

  Wolfgang looked around trying to see anything through the fizz. Was there something dark over there? It was harder to see, all on his own, no equipment, no other Tellies. He hadn't explored down there, the new trio was bringing something completely new into reach. He grabbed the fumbling mental extension of the trio and pulled it that direction. Shoved it into the dark. It latched onto something solid.

  "Air's breathable, pine trees . . . what the hell are those?" the voice was muffled by the partially closed door between the rooms.

  Wolfgang pulled back into his body and warped light around himself. He walked up to the door to the gate room and slipped through. The techs were recording, sampling the air, measuring the airflow. Jack Kelso was underfoot.

  Wolf couldn't see through the rings, but a screen was displaying what the camera wielding tech was recording. A circle of huts with a wooden palisade all around, just a hundred meters downhill. Halfway to the gate there were people in crude clothing looking up the hill at them. He watched a group of men split up, half walking toward them, half walking to the side and out of sight of the gate. Sneaking up on us.

  The men approaching were short, thin but muscular. The leader, walking right up to the gate and staring through at Jack was perhaps five foot tall. Dark skin, lots of tattoos, and a handsomely shaped skull under pattern shaved black hair. Fairly normal, except for the ears. Cartilage stiffened the tall distinct points.

  "Elves. Damn, I always thought of Elves as European types," Kelso muttered.

  Wolfgang caught a slight tightening of the head elf's muscles and readied a shield spell. The view rippled and dissolved.

  Wolfgang stepped back into the Tellies room and looked mentally at the mag bottle. Dr. Heath had it firmly in hand, and was letting it fade slowly. The head tech looked out and then nodded back into the room. "Cut it."

  Jack hustled back in and looked smugly at the tired trio. "Congratulations. Looks like you three are our latest team."

  "No we're not. Not without a contract and a considerable raise." Harry looked smugly back at him. "Then we'll demonstrate that employees do a better job than slaves."

  Jack shook his head. "Nope. Congress just passed the compromise bill. The genetically engineered that are not fully human, are to remain the wards of their partial-parents or the corporations that created them. Hmm. Director of Training. I think I'll suggest that as my new title."

  Wolfgang checked the progress of the weak spot. Oh yes. That aneurism is coming along nicely. Got a bit of a headache, Jack? I'm afraid you're due for a catastrophic stroke, Real Soon Now. Wolfgang had been heavier handed with the very few men who’d seemed like immediate threats; Jack enjoyed flaunting his power more than taking advantage of it. But he was still one of the ones who threatened them.

  Jack strutted out, and the trio eyed each other, and then his corner. Wolf let the warp go.

  "Good job Harry. You have until the President gets back from Europe to sign the bill to enjoy the privileges of the free. Except I doubt you'll be allowed out the front gate." Wolfgang met his furious gaze levelly, then looked over at Heath.

  "Dr. Heath, several of the women are very bitter about having been sterilized. And I assure you, the men aren't best pleased either. How about you finally do your job and correct a medical problem?"

  She glared at him.

  "What, pissed because you suddenly turned into property? Join the club. Don't like Jack's hands on you? It's going to get a whole lot worse. I'll send your first patients to you in the morning. Prove to us that you are on our side, and maybe we'll let you in on a few secrets."

  "I've done a few already, when specifically requested. No one who'd go tattle to you, however."

  "Glad to hear that." Wolfgang strolled out, giving the sensors on the door a little tweak to open them without sending an alarm.

  He accosted Mercy, AK and Rebeccah before breakfast and sent them to the research lab.

  He'd go himself, if they had time. They'd explored fifteen potential colony worlds and were tentatively planning on selling them over the next two months. If the government wanted the engineered gone quickly, they'd use them. And for any of the Tellies here who wanted to escape, those would be their best chances to find societies that would accept them.

  All three women looked smug when they showed up for dinner.

  "Now, we need to start getting Harry into our circle. Jason, did you say you run with him?"

  "Yeah, most mornings. Mind, you, neither of us is in your class."

  "See you tomorrow morning, then."

  "You never invite us girls to run with you, Wolf. Scared we'll beat you?" AK grinned.

  "Oh, sorry, I hadn't realized you ran. How many kays a week do you usually do?"

  She snorted. "I walk four kilometers after dinner, nearly every day. Today I'm skipping. And no, I don't want to start running."

  "Me neither." Rebeccah changed the subject. "Did you hear about the animal labs? Gisele says they're going to shut them down, no more genetic engineering, even on animals."

  "Silly, really, the size of the population they have to feed. Of course, the government is trying to turn us all into vegetarians. Or yeast eaters." Jason frowned down at his plate. "This new fake meat isn't too bad. And the veggie cubes are actually tasty."

  Wolf nodded. "You should have seen the stuff they fed us in the army. Tofu loaf and such. Nasty. This yeast meat is better, and these new full service reformulating kitchens are going to be really handy. I must get one."

  Chapter Twenty-six

  NewGene Experimental Facilities

  Wisconsin, North American Union

  16 June 2116

  Wolfgang shifted on his cafeteria style bench as Harry walked in.

  "Right. This morning we have a Congressional panel observing. They have expressed dismay over our gender biased methods, so we'll organize a mixed group. They are a science panel, so I'd like to try touching on several types of worlds, briefly." Harry looked around and frowned at the Tellies. "AnnaKarina, you're in charge, grab whoever you want for this." His wrist comm chirped at him. He glanced at it, nodded. "They've just arrived, so, choose the rest of your team, and be ready in one hour." He turned and hustled out.

  AK raised her eyebrows, and couldn't help but look a little flattered. She also waited until he'd left, before she turned to the others. "So, first, Jason for some dinosaurs. Then I want to back off from the world, like we've practiced. Rebeccah, I want you in the ring all the time. You are the best at maintaining the power. While we're just maintaining the interface, I want Jason to drop out of the ring. I think I can find some Mammoths. Then back out again, and show one of the empty worlds with both farmable land and forests close enough to be seen. So they realize this is not just a scientific instrument, but a commercial enterprise."

  AK looked around speculatively. "Rebeccah and Barry on the power. Marty and Harriet on the ring stabilization. Nero, Edmund, Charlie, Kevin and Michael." She looked at Wolfgang thoughtfully. "Teams of eight men seem to work best. When Jason slides out, I'd like you to try to slide in."

  ::You get sloppy seconds. :: Charlie mostly managed to keep a straight face.

  :: You better hope Rebeccah didn't hear that or you won't be getting anything. :: Wolfgang nodded to AK. "If it feels like I'm destabilizing the group I won't push on in."

  Her eyes narrowed. "You boys and your pathetic innuendo."

  He gave her his best innocent look.

  :: AK hearing is the one you ought to worry about. :: Charlie blinked blandly.

  AK switched her glare to Charlie. "Everyone get cleaned up, meet me at the ring building in thirty minutes."

  Several "Fact Finding" Committees had observed the gates. One had gone through. Fortunately to a world they had a beacon on, so they'd been able to find them again. Congress was jumping into action late, trying to take control, and alternately claiming American ownership of the other worlds and then turning around to make a grand statement about the advancement for the entirety of mank
ind.

  "You'd think their main concern would be figuring how to tax them." Jason eyed the officials as they walked in from the magnetic bottle facility, apparently not noticing the triple doors or blowout windows.

  "They may be on a science panel, but they'll be politicians, not scientists. The government wants more than tax money out of this. They want power. This is the portal to the new frontier, and the government is going to want to control it. With luck they'll be so divided about the best way to snatch this tasty chunk of power that they'll be arguing for years." Wolfgang kept his voice low, as the touring politicians were ushered through.

  "This is the control room, where the specialists fine tune the gate and direct it to the correct world." Harry was conducting this tour. A scowling Jack had been forbidden to speak to them.

  "These are your so-called gods?" One of the reps stopped and looked them over.

  "Tellies. As in Telekinesis and Telepathy. Gods was a deliberately inflammatory term invented by newsies with a bias."

  "Humph. Apparently the designers didn't believe in diversity." The Rep was Sub-Saharan phenotype, like Harry.

  "Some of the companies tried to average out the children for a multi-racial appearance. Some catered to the esthetics of the parents they were trying to sell improvement packages to. Mercy, as you see is very Indian-subcontinent phenotype, where AnnaKarina is a Caucasian type. Wolfgang is more typical of the mixed type, brown hair, medium toned skin, dark eyes. Then to show off the possibilities, you've got Michael, with white blonde hair, very blue eyes, and what I believe they advertised as a surfer's tan. Paxal's eyes were an experiment, I don't believe the gold eyes were ever offered to the public."

  "But no Blacks."

  "Not in this particular group, and they are underrepresented as a whole. The Asian types are even less well represented. Genetic engineering was never well accepted in some cultures."

  "Or they couldn't afford it."

  "Fortunately, as it turns out." Harry smiled thinly. "They are not at risk of being enslaved or sterilized."

  The Rep looked Harry over. "Makes you uneasy, does it?"

  "Very. Stopping the use of the tech is one thing, attacking the rights of the children who, if anything, are the victims of the technology is unnecessary and demeans all of us." The Rep looked them over once more, but strolled on without further comment.

  Three women, middle aged and mousey looking with graying brown hair nearly ignored the Tellies as they argued their way through the room.

  ". . . government needs to declare sovereignty over these other worlds. Our citizens, and their children are not to be turned over to some foreign . . . "

  "The United Nations should be the superior controlling body. The royalties from mining could support the expanded duties."

  "We need to turn down the colony groups that might declare their independence. It's all well and good to speak of exiling of criminals and undesirables." They finally looked at the Tellies. Then looked away indifferently. "But what about these tribal people? They want to get away from all governmental control. We would have no way to guarantee civil rights in their colonies. They must not be allowed . . . "

  Jason shook his head as they walked out. "They keep sounding like they really care—until they look at us."

  " . . . taxes to finance troops to protect people from the dangerous fauna." An Asian man, walking between two others.

  Behind them, a younger man raised his voice. "How are you going to protect the dangerous fauna and their habitat from humans? Are we going to hop from world to world creating a biological holocaust?"

  "Stop grinning, Wolfgang." Jack frowned at him. "You should be working, not eavesdropping on this . . . brainstorming, which has no relevance."

  "I thought you weren't supposed to talk? As soon as you can clear the ring room, we can get to work." Wolfgang lounged back in his chair. Through the doorway he heard a shrill voice raised about women's rights.

  AK looked over at him. "What do you think about women's rights across the dimensions?"

  "I think they'd better take guns and lots of ammunition with which to defend them. Also handy against tyrannosaurs and sabertooths. Do you think you could be a bit unnoticeable and manage to meet some of those women in the ladies room? Mention that slaves come in female as well as male forms and wouldn't it be nice if you could call the police the next time your boss rapes you?"

  That got him a glare from AK. She looked over her shoulder at Jack, who ought to have heard that. He was staring into space, blinking absently, then wandered off.

  AK glared at him. Wolfgang smiled and released the jerk.

  He stuck on his electrodes and relaxed with the transmission hood perched on the back of his head until the visitors were where they belonged.

  Wolfgang eyed his computer, and pondered just how much this government committee should be shown. The company claimed to be avoiding the populated branch of worlds. The technological ones were dangerous, the primitive ones . . . were endangered. On at least two worlds, that Wolfgang knew of, they were pretending they had not initiated a replay of the effects of European germs on American Indians. Wolfgang rather thought that the company hadn't mentioned that to the Government. And then there was the Wisconsin flu that had gone around a bit late last winter. Couldn't possibly have started here, right?

  The teams that could open to the inhabited worlds were not being used. Officially.

  The rings spun up, power flowed, Jason reached and held off attaching just long enough to find some herbivores. Nice large ones.

  They gave the committee about a minute to look the dinosaurs over, then pulled back. Jason softened his contact, and Wolfgang eased in carefully. No problem.

  :: How about some Mammoths? ::

  :: That's what I had in mind. Pity there aren't any beacons, but this branch seems to have mostly Pleistocene megafauna. :: AK steered toward the top, seemed to lose her grip for a moment, but this close the whirlpool leaped to attach.

  A street scene.

  Antique cars that he couldn't identify, an ox cart. The man driving the oxen looked directly at the gate and recoiled, hustling his cows away. His forehead receded from heavy brows, his chin receded from the outthrust face and dental arch. Down the street, a mammoth walked around the corner, carrying a load of cut lumber on its tusks. A woman peered at them, backed away. Children pointed. A man rushed up and pulled the children away. They were blondes and redheads, all with fair skin, all with Neanderthal facial characteristics.

  Wolfgang reached with AK and they pulled the whirlpool away.

  :: Ow, ow, ow! ::

  :: Relax a minute, I'll steer. :: Wolfgang pulled back and eyed the shadows and headed downward to the right. He'd peeked, but never connected with one of these worlds. He held the whirlpool back and skimmed, thunked down suddenly on a hill top. He left it there long enough for everyone to get a nice long look at the ruins that went on for miles. Once there was a city here. Hauled the whirlpool away and steered for AK's usual cloud. Saw the spark of a beacon and slid into contact. Grasslands and woods, the deep green of pines on the more distant mountains. The beacon showed up nicely. He held it, sweating, until AK came back.

  :: You'd better go help Charlie and Harriet. ::

  He eased back and spotted Edmond and Barry carrying the power, with Rebeccah resting. He listened to the rings, supported the perfect tone. Charlie and Harriet relaxed, Marty eased in and they concentrated on it, absorbed the energy of the sound. He felt AK pull back, all the way back and relaxed, letting the tone spread, feeling the power dropping abruptly, slamming into the capacitors. The rings whined shrilly and he withdrew his support, looked around. Barry was sitting woozily on the floor. Rebeccah was red cheeked and embarrassed.

  She started to open her mouth and Wolfgang shook his head.

  "Geeze Barry, you need to lower the power gradually." Wolfgang snagged a soda and handed it to him. "Scare the damn techs, and then where will we be? Out of a job and on the streets, eh?" />
  Barry chugged the soda.

  Edmund snorted. "You were more fun before you picked up what passes for a sense of humor in the Army."

  Wolfgang shed the hood and started picking off electrodes.

  Elsie passed out sodas and Wolfgang leaned back on the wall and worked on unnoticeable. :: No one here. Go away. ::

  He sauntered into the ring room, and forward to where the Congressmen were leaving through the front doors.

  "Neanderthals! With cars! I don't believe it."

  "Sign of the Antichrist. It's these abominations, trying to fool us."

  Wolfgang mimicked something midway between their two southern accents. "Ought to exile them to one of those worlds." He suppressed a snicker as they both decided the other had said it.

  One nodded sharply. "That's what I'm hearing from my constituents, now. They want all the genetically engineered off of Earth. I can't believe parents do such things to their own children. Poor hybrid monstrosities, I'm sure God accepts them to his heart, when they come. But we can't have them running around loose and reproducing."

  "If we can't sterilize them, this would be the best alternative."

  Wolfgang shook his head in disbelief and wandered to listen to a rainbow quartet of women.

  ". . . thinks the Gaia colony is doing very well."

  The redhead sniffed. "Define well. They keep falling into gender stereotyped roles."

  "Be practical." The black woman looked amused. "Men are physically stronger than women. They are going to have to do most of the heavy work. Women are going to have to do the work the men haven't got time for. That means getting over being prissy, and chopping off chicken heads and plucking and cleaning and butchering."

  The blonde was rigid with indignation. "We are a bit too civilized to turn back into ignorant savages at the first opportunity. We should have sent a complete, state-of-the-art high tech town."