Aethon Arises (Endless Fire Book 2)

by R E Kearney

  Yisheng’s statement, along with Robert’s concerns, begin to arrive in Rita’s drug dulled brain. “A dozen babies? Inside me? Twelve!

  “Well, only until you arrive at SPEA’s city of Venus. Several SPEA women are waiting for you there. They’ve volunteered their wombs for transplant and full-term pregnancy. Then, these babies will be born and raised on Venus, where they will be safe and protected…enabled to achieve their destiny as the next human species. The humans who save humans.” Yisheng reassuringly pats Rita’s hand. “So, are you ready to begin?”

  Rita hesitates, thinks for moment, then nods her head. “If I have womb for one, I have womb for a dozen. Always womb for one more!” She giggles, a bit dope dazed and goofy.

  Yisheng motions for the two nurse-bots to begin. Continuing to hold Rita’s hand, he explains the procedure the nurse-bots are following. He is monitoring the transplants with his AR glasses. “Now, relax Rita. First, this sterile bivalve speculum is inserted to visualize your cervix. Whoo! I should have warned you, it may be chilly. Ok, I see that your cervical canal and uterine cavity are aligned now. Good. Very good. Now, what you feel, Rita, is insertion of the Teflon catheter containing the embryo and tissue culture medium. Ah, there! The first embryo is implanted! That’s one, Rita. Only eleven more to go.”

  “Hunh, I didn’t feel a thing, except for that cold speculum.” Rita closes her eyes and relaxes.

  Yisheng captures Robert’s attention. He points toward a nurse-bot waiting across the room. “You will receive your injection of computerized brain implants, there.”

  “Sorry?” Robert hesitates. “Nobody told me about this.”

  “Oh, it won’t hurt you, Robert. The implants are laser imprinted on nano-biochips. Smaller than your smallest red blood cell. That nurse-bot will inject them into your blood stream where they will float around until it’s safe to remove them. We’ll be able to locate them, because I implanted in each of the biochips an addressable transmitter operated as magnetic spin, which will transmit their locations in your blood stream. Rita is transporting Shengwu’s embryos. You’re transporting Shengwu’s Peter…actually Peter’s personality, captured by my daughter…plus massive data bases of consumable memory…and ELF version 2.”

  “Again, sorry?” Robert glances at the waiting nurse-bot and then disbelievingly questions Yisheng. “Nano-chips? Why?”

  “Shengwu calls it her Peter Principle. Makes Rita the mother and you a type of father. Besides, she also used genomes from both of you for these dozen darlings.” He flashes four fingers to Rita signaling the implanting of the fourth embryo.

  She smiles and closes her eyes. Obviously, lying there unable to move while the nurse-bots methodically load her with embryos is boring her.

  Rita does not see Yisheng flash her his four fingers and thumb, before he returns his attention to Robert. “You and Rita are preparing to become the surrogate parents of the next human species…super-intelligent, transhumans. Shengwu has designed the embryos residing inside Rita so when they’re born, their bodies will have the physical ability to withstand the heat and survive the diseases of the future. Their genetically engineered cells are self-healing and anti-aging. If Shengwu’s genome engineering is correct and if they are not murdered, these twelve humans may never die. Also, thanks to her gene drive engineering, neither will their offspring.”

  Without looking away from Robert, Yisheng displays a count of six. “She embedded the embryos’ advanced intelligence and ability to fully interface with Artificial Intelligence in the nano-biochips you will carry. The ELF nano-biochips contain both the upgraded version of ELF and the instructions for the embryos’ intelligence insertion.”

  Robert is skeptical. “So, what do these nano-chips do to me…floating around in my blood? Why not just send them in a normal container?”

  “Because, like the embryos, the biochips are human cells requiring presence within a human body to survive…a hospitable host…your body. Ninety-six hours from now, the embryos should be transplanted from Rita into their full-term wombs. By then they will have grown sufficiently for acceptance of the intelligence biochips.” Yisheng flashes eight fingers at Rita. Her eyes remain shut, so she does not receive his count down. He turns to Robert. “You should go now. Get your injection.”

  “And what if I say no?” Robert defiantly shakes his head.

  “You can’t say no! If you say no, you’re dooming the human race.” Robert’s unexpected refusal alarms Yisheng. “I have seen Evoil’s plans Robert…an army and a nation of minions with submissive minds they can control. But even if I prevent them from creating millions of obedient slaves, if we allow the anti-evolutionists and science deniers like Evoil to remain in control, mankind will breed itself into extinction, Robert!”

  Robert hears Shengwu speaking with Yisheng’s voice. “Our current bodies are unevolved, weak and vulnerable. Aethon is just the first…the first superbug, super killer to be spawned by Earth’s collapsing environment. Many more superbugs are coming, causing mass extinctions. Do you really want to be responsible for the death of humanity?”

  “Ok. Ok, I’ll get the injection. I promised Shengwu. Just stop preaching that everything is an end of the world catastrophe.” Robert begins walking toward the waiting nurse-bot. “I can only panic so many times, and as Richard Bach wrote, ‘what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.’ Perhaps a deadly disease is just what humanity needs to clear out the clutter. Maybe much of mankind deserves to die.”

  Yisheng straightens nine fingers. “You may be correct. I think it’s inevitable, Robert. Most of mankind is driving itself to annihilation, just like Neanderthals. Darwin’s old belief in survival of the strongest and fittest is no longer true. Now, it’s survival of the adaptable. People who do not adapt will not escape from their self-created, self-destruction.”

  Ignoring Yisheng’s sermonizing, Robert slides into a chair next to the nurse-bot and presents his right arm. The nurse-bot inserts an IV needle and activates an intravenous transfusion. Doubting what he has heard, Robert skeptically scrutinizes the pale pink substance entering his body.

  “This goo is the future of mankind?” Shaking his head in disbelief, he questions Yisheng. “I’m the host holding the hopes for humanity?”

  Yisheng nods. “Yes, you are and you are doomed to watch humanity’s survival or demise happen, Robert. When Shengwu engineered your genomes to fight Aethon, she also applied her epigenetics skills to lengthen your life. You should live for another one-hundred and fifty some years.”

  “Sorry? What?”

  Yisheng smirks. “Shengwu cursed you with a long life fraught with unending responsibility. You’re now the founding father of her homo futuris.”

  RELIGIOUS INSPIRATION

  Reverend Diaboli slams his palm against Shengwu’s nose. Blood sprays into the air, onto her clothes and across the floor splattering Zhou’s body. Her knees buckle. She crumples. Painfully squeezing her arms behind her back, Willy Wanker forces her to stand. She wobbles, half conscious.

  “Leave her alone!” Pion screams. She grabs for Diaboli, but she is only Augmented Reality - a flickering, holographic light. Her hands are colored air grabbing air.

  Locked outside the room, Obed paces in the passageway. He is watching for Negocio’s security, as Reverend Diaboli ordered him when he shoved him out of the room. He does not understand why. Pressing his ear against the door, he cannot hear what is happening inside the room. He fears for Zhou and Shengwu. What has he done? He is sick to his soul.

  Raising his hand high, Diaboli again threatens Shengwu. “As it is written in the bible, ‘He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.’ I can show you mercy or I can strike you down. Do you wish to join your friend on the floor?”

  Blood oozing from her nose and a cut on her face, Shengwu’s head hangs limply forward. Grabbing her hair from behind, Wanker yanks her head back. �
��Answer the Pastor!”

  “What do you want? I don’t know what you want.” Shengwu mumbles through bruised, swelling lips.

  Wanker shakes her “ELF! We know that your father stole it, and we know that you know where he is hiding. You must return them to Deacon Evoil. He sits at the Lord’s right hand…the hand of God. Only he is blessed and wise enough to use ELF to save the world from evil non-Christians. But even with God’s help, Deacon Evoil cannot complete his earthly mission without your father and ELF.”

  Bleeding and rattled, Shengwu pleads, “Please stop. I’m just a genome engineer trying to save these sick people…your people. Please don’t hit me again.”

  Crack! Reverend Diaboli slaps her ear. Shengwu’s head rings with a clanging, banging. She cannot see. Her eyes refuse to focus.

  “They are sinners!” Diaboli screams into Shengwu’s face. “God has visited this plague upon them for their sins. Unsaved sinners will die. Those who have supported my ministry, I have touched with my prayers…with my saving grace. Those who have given unto me, I have laid my hands upon. They are saved…are freed of sin. They will live. It is the way of the Lord.”

  Zhou groans. Her left leg twitches. She is still a lump of flesh on the floor, too weak to move. Slowly, consciousness is seeping into her brain. Her Nsep induced paralysis is easing.

  Diaboli kicks Zhou in her ribs. “Do you care about your friend? Do you want to see her hurt, because you refuse to cooperate? Just give us ELF!”

  Diaboli kicks Zhou again, a little harder. Zhou grunts. Her eyes flutter with the pain.

  Shengwu begs him. “Don’t. Please don’t hurt her. She knows nothing about ELF.”

  Diaboli drops his foot onto Zhou’s throat and shoves down. “In the book of John it is written, ‘the one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.’ The Son of God lives in me and I am here to destroy the devil’s work. Now, if you don’t want your friend to suffer, return ELF.”

  “The time has come, Shengwu.” Pion unexpectedly announces. “There is no reason to resist, anymore.”

  “Is Peter well?” Shengwu calls back.

  “I was told that Peter is preparing to leave.” Pion responds quietly.

  Wanker yanks and twists Shengwu’s arms. “What are you two chattering about? Who is Peter?”

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Obed slams his fist against the door. “Reverend! San Juan police! Police!”

  “Tell us now! Right now! Or I will crush her throat.” Zhou chokes, struggling to breathe, as Diaboli mashes his foot against her throat.

  “Don’t! Don’t hurt her. Leave her alone. I’ll cooperate.” Shengwu surrenders.

  Bang! Obed kicks the door. “The police are trying to break through the lobby door.”

  From behind them, Pion enquires, “Shall I enable them access, Shengwu?”

  “Yes!” Shengwu shouts. Diaboli smacks her silent.

  “Let’s go!” Wanker drags Shengwu backward toward the door. “Where’s ELF? Tell me! Tell me now or Pastor Diaboli crushes your friend’s throat. Now!”

  Stumbling and grimacing against the pain, Shengwu moans. “In my lab. ELF is in my lab.”

  “Take us there.” Wanker releases Shengwu’s arms, opens the door and heaves her into the passageway.

  Shengwu crashes against Obed, knocking him onto the floor. Whack! Diaboli’s boot toe crushes Obed’s chin, knocking him unconscious.

  As he follows Shengwu and Wanker to her lab, Reverend Diaboli steps over Obed’s bleeding body. He glances down upon him, then graces him with a few words of faith. “Heed well these words from Proverbs my son, like a dog that returns to its vomit, a fool does the same foolish things again and again.”

  NIGHT MOVES

  Sun sets on old San Juan. Reds and golds flower across the Bahia de San Juan. The San Felipe de Morro Fortress glows. Christmas lights sparkle aboard the yachts and cruise ships plying the bay. Across the Bahia, competing Christmas songs and music mix and mingle. The holiday music and singing dances upon the bay waters.

  Robert and Rita cautiously edge the coroner’s transporter out of Shengwu’s tunnel complex garage and into the twilight. Flash! The glider’s automatic lights bloom brightly. They are a blazing star.

  Pop! Pang! Crash! Pneumatic pistol pellets pepper the auto-auto. Rita dives to the floor. Robert scrambles to shield her. The transporter rolls forward and then stops.

  “Go! Go!” Robert orders, but the auto-auto settles onto its spheres and refuses to proceed.

  Peeking through the transporter’s pellet shattered glass, Robert sees two men blocking their passage. Its auto-guide jolts to a halt with them barring its way. Their pneumatic pistols pointing at the auto-auto, the two men warily advance. Robert ducks a breath before another pellet crashes into the glass where his head had been.

  “We’re trapped!” Robert warns Rita, as he feverishly scours the transporter’s interior for something, anything that can save them. He finds nothing. “This auto-auto is so safe, it’s going to get us killed.”

  Tap. Tap. Tap. Robert hears knocking on the transporter’s corpse carriage access panel. Tap. Tap. Tap. Crawling over Rita and across the carriage hold deck, he stretches and activates the access panel. It slides open, revealing nothing.

  “Get out! Get out now!” Mugavus’ formless voice commands.

  A fusillade of pellets shred the cabin windows. Robert grabs Rita’s shoulder, yanking her toward Mugavus’ voice. She scrambles past him and rolls out of the access panel and onto the ground. Robert slides out behind her.

  “Get under here.” Mugavus raises her digital, concealing cloak and motions to them.

  Rita and Robert clamber beneath Mugavus’ protective, invisibility cloak. They huddle together, struggling to hide three under this covering for one. Robert bends and twists, but still fails to squeeze all of himself out of sight. Hearing the two men nearing, the three freeze. Robert futilely attempts to shrink his uncovered legs and feet.

  “Ok Billy, where do you think they are?” Pour LeNuls illuminates the transporter’s interior. “I don’t see any blood or anything.”

  Standing on the opposite side, Billy Bollocks pumps several more pellets into the interior to ease his frustration. “Willy isn’t going to be happy to learn we destroyed this coroner’s auto-auto for no reason.”

  “I’m more worried about Reverend Diaboli and his hell fire.” Pour randomly swings his light around the ground and garage entrance. “I suggest we keep silent and wait. Tell Diaboli nothing until we know something.”

  Watching Pour and Billy taking seats on the ground in front of the transporter, Mugavus whispers. “We need to leave. I have a glider waiting less than one hundred meters away.”

  “Mugavus, you and Rita go. You can stay camouflaged. I’ll hide here until you’re in the glider.” Robert unwraps himself.

  “What about you?” Rita clutches Robert’s arm. “I’m not leaving without you.”

  Pulling loose, Robert slips from beneath the cloak. “Get going. I’ll follow.”

  “How?” Rita reaches for him again.

  “Don’t know, yet. I’m making it up as I go along.” Robert slides away, seeking cover below the auto-auto’s body.

  Scrunched beneath the edge of the transporter and barely breathing, Robert waits, watches and listens. Sitting at the opposite end, blocking the exit, Billy and Pour are doing the same. Robert searches his mind for a method to escape their notice. He craves a distraction to lure them away.

  Mugavus delivers. Safely within her glider, beyond the range of Billy and Pour’s pneumatic pistols, Mugavus shatters the night with light and noise. Like moths to a flame, she is calling them. They take her bait.

  “Who is that? I wonder what they want.” Pour rises to his feet and begins jogging toward Rita and Mugavus.

  Billy jumps up and follows Pour. As they near her glider,
Mugavus moves a few feet ahead. She is luring them farther away.

  Now is Robert’s opportunity. Avoiding glass shards and other dangerous debris, Robert climbs inside the glider. With the push of a button, he activates its silent electric motor. A whisper and the transporter rises to life. No bodies stand in front of it. Like a ghost, it eases forward.

  Seeing that Robert is safely on the move, Mugavus decides to stop playing her cat and mouse game with Billy and Pour. She directs her glider to accelerate full-speed ahead. “Instituto de Neurobiologia hover lot at maximum speed.”

  As Mugavus and Rita dissolve into the darkness, Billy and Pour realize that they have been suckered. They turn around just in time to watch Robert hum by, out of their reach. Angrily, Billy pumps two pellets at the fleeing Robert.

  “Stop wasting your time and pellets, Billy. Your pellets won’t puncture its graphene body.” Pour jogs to his auto-auto. “Let’s go! The longer we delay, the farther they’ll get away.”

  Wheezing from his run, Billy kicks the door. “We’ll never catch them in this, Pour. Auto-autos are programmed to follow all the traffic regulations. He’s already out of sight. We can’t go fast enough to find him.”

  “So, we send the drone.” Pour yanks open the portal. “Pull it out and launch it. With all the damage we did, his transporter will be easy to spot.”

  Pour’s prediction is correct. Less than five minutes later, their drone is hovering above Robert. Leading him by two blocks are Rita and Mugavus. They are racing to their get-away sky whale, as fast as San Juan’s traffic laws allow.

  Following legally behind in their auto-auto, Billy is increasingly nervous. “Should I tell Reverend Diaboli what we’re doing, now?”

  “Are you crazy or just stupid?” Pour snarls. “We don’t tell him nothing, until our job is done. Just shut-up and keep your drone on top of that transporter. Don’t you dare lose it!”