Scientist: An Earth 340K Standalone Novel (Soldier X Book 1)

by D. P. Oberon

  “I will come there,” said Dang. He wanted to go right now. “In five days,” he finally bit out, those words the hardest words he’d ever said. He couldn’t go there right away. The serum would need to set!

  “Very well,” said Suyin. “I expected more of you Dang. I heard she’s back with that Wenqi character. She was such a pliable, pitiable creature, Dang. How could you stuff it up?”

  Dang roared and slashed at the holo-display and his sister jumped. He turned off the house’s communication service.

  Nuan had taken his daughter, Lizhang, away from him too, and that had made it even worse. Suyin thought he couldn’t control a mouse, huh? He would show his sister.

  Those two maggots, Hazou and Wenqi, should’ve stuck their noses well away. He would kill those two maggots with one foot stomp, reclaim his property, and teach his mouse a lesson she’d never forget.

  Downstairs in his private basement where his wife and daughter were banned from entering, Dang’s house AI scanned him and the door opened. He went past this door into a smaller darker room where he had to sit on an air-seat. A set of lasers came down and scanned him again. He confirmed with his voice, and then a small needle pricked his thumb. The floor beneath him opened and the chair retreated downward into a blue light.

  The blue light eventually became the ceiling that closed over him. He now stood in a seven-sided room. Here there was a comp-node that directly linked into the Chrysanthemum Striped Tiger’s neuralnet. Several weapons hovered in glass enclosures, their configurations all gene-linked to him.

  None of these things held his attention. He walked up to the conversion bed that took up the center of the room and rubbed his hands up and down it.

  The conversion bed consisted of two circular bands at the foot and the headrest. The round bands would encircle the hovering bed at the head and foot ends. He tapped against the holo-display by the side of the bed. A whirring sound accompanied the tapping and a large cylindrical vial floated in front of him. The words: ‘Xu-Tiger Serum’ hovered above in a green holo-font. He entered the authorization and the nib’s cover over the vial hissed back revealing a sharp needle. He typed in the final instructions, his reservations gone in the heat of his rage.

  Once the conversion process started, there would be no going back.

  He stripped his clothes and placed himself on the cold bed. The two round bands purred as they stopped over his body.

  The hovering vial flew to Dang’s neck and stopped. Its body twisted and its needle pressed against Dang’s neck: his jugular vein. The cold kiss of steel hissed into the air beside his ear and then the world began to shake.

  The bed’s round bands hummed and the pain started in the pit of Dang’s soul. He couldn’t move as the pain ripped through him. They had told him conversion would be painful. Yet all he could hold on to through the transformation was his rage.

  And his wife’s bloodied face.

  Chapter 17 - Hindrance

  If Nuan hadn’t been at the center of it she wouldn’t have believed it. But she was at the center of it so she couldn’t disbelieve it as much as she wanted to. Just like so many other things in my life, she thought despondently. But this had been a good thing. A too close of a call thing. She hoped it was her last.

  The only thing in her life she was proud of: little Lizhang who sat on her lap, spooned mouthfuls of steaming fish-bone soup into her tiny mouth.

  The four adults sat around the dinner table: Hazou, Wenqi, Old Man Yok, and Lady Lee. The ground floor kitchen now washed and cleaned. The las-lights so old they only shed a pale flickering yellow. But the heating strips along the cornices glowed a sullen orange adding to the light. They had managed to pay for heating with the money from Old Man Yok and Lady Lee. It was only for the ground floor, but still better than nothing.

  Nuan sipped at her bowl of soup chewing at a piece of tasteless hybrid coriander. She was careful to make sure the bowl had a wide space as it moved around Lizhang. Her daughter had developed a magnetic attachment to Nuan and wouldn’t let her mother out of sight. So now she sat on Nuan’s lap while they both ate their dinner. She kissed her daughter’s cheek on impulse.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it myself if the triant hadn’t dropped me at the front of the door and then you opened it and saw it too,” finished Nuan. She wanted to correct herself because, of course, her brother hadn’t seen it—he didn’t have eyes—but Old Man Yok and Lady Lee had.

  “Well, I’m glad the triant came to help. But I’m telling you it will mean you will owe the People’s Favor. It is well known the triants are her eyes and ears.” Lady Lee spoke as if she was familiar with the triants. The triants were often portrayed in the mass media but most had never seen one in real life.

  “I’m glad too,” said Wenqi.

  Heat suffused Nuan’s face as she met his eyes across the table. Her fingers trembled against the bowl causing the hot soup to spill over her fingers. She winced and sucked at her fingers. He’s seen me naked with all of my bruises, she thought. She tightened the bathrobe around her. She felt disgusted at her actions. She could’ve got them both killed. She still remembered his accusatory words and how they burned her. Maybe she should’ve run away from Dang before it came to this. But it was never as easy as people thought—they didn’t know she had tried to run away before. And the punishment Dang meted out when he caught her. Each time his control strengthened. Until she felt she couldn’t leave. And then he had…done that thing to Lizhang. Somehow she’d found the strength to leave.

  Nuan looked down avoiding Wenqi’s gaze. She couldn’t take the way he stared as if he could look through her soul.

  Hazou came to Nuan’s rescue by saying, “I wonder if that means we are being followed. By now I would’ve expected one of the other fifteen empires to come to us with a job offer.”

  “They’ll kill us if we join somebody else,” said Wenqi.

  Nuan watched as the scientists stared at one another. Suddenly her pain felt a little less compared to theirs. Their lives had been ripped apart savagely. She resolved not to be a burden to them. I’ll help you both, she thought.

  “My own son defected from the empire,” said Old Man Yok. “Though he did it very gradually. It’s one of the reasons my wife and I ended up on the streets. The empire will be punishing you in whatever way they can. If you do defect, take everyone with you.”

  Startled, Nuan looked up at Old Man Yok and Lady Lee. How did her brother meet these two? She wanted to know more about them but she turned to Hazou and asked, “So what are your plans? Our plans, I mean. I’m going to help.”

  Hazou smiled and reached out to clasp her hand. “I have a piece of the Chao-chao plant that I want to try to grow. We were too rushed in the lab. But right now I want to get some seeds so that I can grow them.”

  “We bought a seed from Lichi Mao at the night market and it is useless. She took all of our money,” said Wenqi.

  “Lichi Mao? Dang’s mother?” said Nuan. “She’s still alive? Dang never talked of her.”

  Wenqi waved his hand. “It’s not possible for us now. We can’t afford good quality organic nonlicensed seeds.”

  “I suspect that Lichi Mao didn’t sell us a dud, but the seed was a licensed seed and would check against the licensing server. Because we don’t have valid bank accounts—I made fake accounts and transferred a sliver of funds into them—the seed didn’t get activated,” said Hazou shrugging his shoulders. “If we had the resources of the lab we could’ve reprogrammed it. We can’t.”

  “We bartered with Water Intendant Cai for the use of water in exchange for a percentage of our business. But we can’t even sell vegetables now.” Wenqi slapped his head. “We’re spiraling into debt with the use of the water.”

  Hazou added, “But Water Intendant Cai thinks we have vegetables to sell.”

  “We can cook more,” said Lady Lee. “Can’t we?”

  “Yes, we can,” said Old Man Yok.

  “No, you can’t,” said Wenqi. “
We’ve known you for only a short time and you’ve helped us so much.”

  “You both helped us by giving us a roof over our heads,” said Old Man Yok.

  “You’re already cooking twelve hours a day and doing your best. The people we sell to just don’t have a lot of money. But if we get the vegetables going and sell to the night market where everyone comes, it’ll be more sustainable,” said Hazou.

  Nuan felt useless. An old man and an old woman were working their hands raw cooking and trying to get money for her brother. And she, a young woman, was useless. She let go of Hazou’s hand and pressed her fingers against her head.

  “I’m sorry to be such a hindrance,” Nuan said. “I’m useless.”

  “Don’t speak like that,” said Wenqi, standing up and walking to her. He gently nudged her. “We are family.”

  “You are my family,” said Hazou, stretching his hands to either side of him and engulfing Old Man Yok and Lady Lee in an embrace.

  Nuan cried. “We are family,” she said, tearfully, her lower lip quivering. She clasped one hand around Wenqi’s waist and the other around her daughter. Old Man Yok clasped Lizhang’s shoulder and Lady Lee clasped Wenqi around his waist. All five formed a complete ring.

  “Family,” they all said in unison.

  For the first time in a long time, Nuan felt a surge of white-hot hope build in her chest.

  All the memories of having dinner with her family passed through Nuan. She remembered sneezing out a watermelon seed because her brother had made her laugh so hard she had swallowed it too quickly and it had come out of her nose. When was the last time she had laughed at dinner?

  Nuan decided that she wouldn’t be just a burden to these two kind men that she had grown up with. She would help them. But how, she thought.

  “I’m so glad you’re back little sister; you were always the brave one, the one who came up with the ideas and ordered me around even though I was your elder brother. I’m so glad you’re here,” Hazou said.

  That night, Nuan lay on the floor atop the soft rug that Wenqi managed to get. He didn’t say how. But Nuan knew it would’ve cost him a lot…and he had nothing to give. Lizhang’s head rested against her breast and she kissed the top of her daughter’s head. Nuan sang a lullaby, the Northeastern Cradle Song:

  The moon is bright, the wind is quiet,

  The tree leaves hang over the window,

  My little baby, go to sleep quickly,

  Sleep, dream sweetly.

  And as she sang, an idea began to form in her head. She spent too many years being belittled, made to feel useless. She felt her mother and father’s presence strongly in the inn. Their spirits buoyed her spirit in return. She’d been loved here. The only good thing that had come out of being wed to Dang Mao was Lizhang.

  “Tomorrow,” Nuan whispered to herself. “Tomorrow I’m going to visit Suyin. She has that piano I gave her all those years ago.” The idea crystallized into action.

  Outside, where the communal download box sat against the wall, there floated next to it a bunch of old comms-panels. Nuan looked up the local directory and made a call to Suyin Mao. Her old friend’s face appeared on the holo-display with a surprised look. “Nuan, how good to see you.”

  # # #

  Four days later, the musical notes from the piano filled the Water Spinach Inn. The music spread a lightness of tone, a happiness of smiles, and the freedom of wings. The inn hadn’t listened to music in a long time, and now it appeared transformed by the sheer magic of the music. The walls glowed, the hallways appeared loftier, the kitchen thrummed, and downstairs on the ground level in the main dining room, the air practically vibrated with life.

  Nuan played Summer, a quarter of the Four Seasons concerti by Vivaldi. She made Summer into her own version—faster, it held more staccato, and it burst out of her. She felt the chase of the music, the energy, the brightness. Her fingers flitted over the piano keys, her eyes lay half-lidded, the music taking her in its throes. She forgot her ordeal as she played, forgot how embarrassing it was to ask Suyin Mao, her longtime friend, to have her piano back, forgot that her abusive husband might be on the hunt for her.

  The grand piano stretched its four legs across a somewhat warped synthwood floor. It made the piano stool sit at an awkward angle. The three transpasteel windows had been cleaned thoroughly and they let in the evening light.

  Before Nuan and Old Man Yok cleaned the dining room, it had been a dark, dank thing covered by dust and grime.

  Nuan looked up from her playing. They came down the stairs in a line, the inn’s jump-pads long since deactivated. Nuan liked the stairs better as it caused her to exercise. It was better her the two scientists.

  Wenqi led the way.

  She caught his eye and smiled, and he nodded and then stopped near the piano. Laughter echoed behind him as Old Man Yok and Lady Lee clapped their hands. Nuan now played an improvised version of Spring, which had a jaunty tune. The elderly couple danced in a circle with their elbows intertwined. Their old faces creased against the sunlight, their souls creased with the music. Behind them came Nuan’s dear brother, Hazou, who had always encouraged her to pursue her music. His head tilted in that odd way of his ever since he’d become blind and he clapped.

  More laughter. Nuan surprised as this time it came from her mouth. She loved the way the old couple danced elegantly and at the same time, somewhat dorky.

  She caught Wenqi’s eyes again and he stared right back at her. Her heart beat with dragonfly wings, a rapidity, a beating of emotion she’d given up long ago.

  Lizhang who sat next to her all this time jumped up and dashed toward Hazou. “Uncle Hazou dance with me!” She squealed and thumped her feet on the ground and reached out and grabbed her uncle’s hands. She led him in a circle. Hazou clapped his hands against Lizhang’s in time with Nuan’s jaunty tune.

  Nuan laughed again and she slowly brought the music to a stop. She’d been playing for almost thirty minutes. Perspiration dotted her brow and it just felt so good to do something.

  She stared up into Wenqi’s eyes and put a hand against his abdomen. He shifted away quickly but not before she saw the burning red of his face.

  “So is this what you were up to, young lady?” asked Lady Lee, as she stepped forward. She too had sweat on her brow. She put her elbows against the curve of the grand piano and stared down at her. Old Man Yok joined her side and put an arm around his wife of sixty years.

  Nuan wondered if she would ever have a relationship like that. They were so sweet.

  Hazou walked up to the piano and leaned against it too. This was her family now, she realized, and she wanted with a strong, sudden fierceness to protect all of them. Wenqi without his arms, Hazou without his sight, the old couple, and her young daughter.

  “It’s part of a much wider plan,” Nuan spoke to all of them, but pitched her words at Hazou and Wenqi. “I’m going to teach kids how to play. Most of the rich, like the People’s Servants, who live in Urumqi North district, they don’t like robots to teach their children. They prefer a human. And this is an original grand piano passed on from generation to generation.”

  “That’s wonderful,” said Hazou.

  “Not to over roast the soy-duck,” said Lady Lee. “We live in Southeast Urumqi, the trashiest part of the city. How are we going to get those elitist People’s Servants to come here for lessons?”

  Nuan smiled and thwacked the dark varnish of the piano with the flesh of her palm. “That’s easy. The first lesson is with Suyin Mao’s daughter. Suyin was excited to have me teach again. She was one of my long-time best friends.”

  “Suyin Mao?” said Hazou. “As in Dang Mao’s younger sister?”

  Nuan nodded.

  “Oh no. Please no,” Wenqi said. “Suyin would’ve told Dang that you visited.”

  “Shit,” Hazou whispered.

  Old Man Yok and Lady Lee glanced at one another. They had been briefed about Dang from the two scientists and Nuan. Apparently, they knew his mo
ther well.

  Nuan wrung her fingers. Surely Suyin wouldn’t do that? She had told Suyin that she was on holiday in Urumqi. That should’ve been a good enough lie, right? She thought.

  “Don’t you think?” Wenqi blurted.

  Nuan’s lips trembled. “That’s what Dang says to me: that I do not think.”

  Before Wenqi could respond, Lizhang barreled into the group her hands filled with five homemade red bean buns. She thrust one into Wenqi’s mouth, put one on Hazou’s hands, and gave one each to the old couple, and the last two were left for her and her mother.

  Nuan was glad to have the distraction of food. But as they ate the sweet pulpy red bean bun, a silence filled the dining room.

  “That’s good,” Wenqi said eventually as he finished gulping his bun. He cast a troubling look at Hazou who had spilled some of the bun’s red bean innards onto the piano after tearing into it.

  “I’m glad you thought of it,” said Hazou, smiling and licking his lips. He stared right over Nuan’s head.

  “Great initiative young lady. It will add more money to our scant coffers. Between the piano lessons and our food, maybe we’ll have enough,” said Lady Lee.

  Wenqi sighed. “I’m sorry Nuan, for what I said before. It is a grand idea.” But he turned away and would not look at her.

  Nuan had the distinctive feeling that everyone had told her what she wanted to hear. A loud, whipping sound made her stare out through the windows.

  Outside thunder drummed against the skies and it began to rain. Dirty yellow drops pattered the windows. She thought she caught Dang’s face in the patterns the droplets made against the glass.

  Chapter 18 - Suyin

  Dang’s forearm tendons bunched as the circular door swirled aside. His sister, Suyin Mao, stared at him from beyond. She held a glass vase in her hands that dropped to the ground and splattered, scattering water and rose petals all around.