Evolution

by Jim Reilly

  When Cynthia was done, the first question was asked by Franz Becker, the head of the European Union: “This is amazing, but we have yet to hear the details of the plan to stop the end of time and the paradox it will unleash.”

  “What do you mean we are leaving?” said a surprised James, who was a guest of Jennifer and David’s at the secret meeting. Jennifer had gone to great lengths to get James cleared to be there, but Jennifer had been instructed to not let him hear about the plan to be put in place. Only a few were to be allowed to know at this point.

  “Come on, James. Let’s get going. This is all you are going to see,” she said.

  James sighed, “Ah, it was just getting good.”

  She grabbed him by the arm and told him, “Your clearance doesn’t go up this high, and I want to bring you over to the lab on the other side of London to see the facility where the serum is being manufactured. There’s a small party going on there to celebrate the completion of the first phase of the serum project, and many of the scientists here at this meeting are heading there now. This team has worked on the serum for almost five years. They put in a lot of work just to get three small vials. It is not much, but from this work we will be able to prepare the human race for a future that belongs to our brothers and sisters, not to the Ancient Visitors.”

  Then Jennifer, David, and James got in the transport, and it whisked them to the other side of London in Upper Edmonton. When they got to the lab, the three headed up to the third-floor rotunda where the celebration had already started. As they walked through the door, they could see the head of the team, Dr. Susan Allan, who was also on the Subcommittee to Understand Religious Writings’ Possible Relevance to the Ancient Visitors and the Ruler of the Realm Battle, put her hand up to make the toast. Before Jennifer, David, and James could breathe the air in the room, there was a flash of light. The blast threw the three back out the door.

  As they came to their senses, they heard people scream and cry. Then there was the sound of weapons fire. Jennifer turned to David and James. “The serum. We have to get the serum!” she cried out.

  The three got to their feet and ran through the corridor around the rotunda. Many of the security personnel recognized Jennifer and rallied around her as she repeated, “We have to get the serum!” Then with weapons drawn they headed to the vault, where they heard another blast. Once there, the loyal security personnel engaged in a firefight with the attackers.

  One of the men attacking the lab yelled out, “Die in the name of God!” Then he fired into the opened vault, hitting the glass encasements holding the lab samples before he was shot dead. Much of the inside of the vault was in disarray, and two of the three vials were destroyed.

  Jennifer yelled to James, who was closest to the serum vial, “James, take it and let’s go!”

  He grabbed the vial, and they started out of the vault room heading for the transports. When they came around a corner, they were fired on, and in the confusion James was separated from the others as he took cover in another direction. He then ran down a hallway, trying to open doors. When one opened he slipped through it and found himself trapped in a closet filled with gauzes, bandages, and needles. As the weapons fire got close, James looked for options, and then he heard the door getting battered. He looked for a place to hide the vial, but he could not find any. With much hesitation, he chose what he felt was the only option. When the door came down, the terrorists found James lying on the floor convulsing. The vial had been emptied into a syringe.

  Angry but still determined, they grabbed James to carry him out. Because the weight of James’ body slowed them down, Jennifer and the loyal security personnel were able to overtake and shoot the attackers. One by one they fell until they were all down.

  David was the first to get to James as his body shook with convulsions. “Oh, what did you do? Stay with us, James!” He then hit the communication receiver on his arm. “Send the medics to the south exit. Now!” he yelled.

  Jennifer held James’ hand as his body shook uncontrollably, and they waited for medical personnel to arrive. He was obviously in pain, and she tried to comfort him as David rushed out the door to find help. It was then that Jennifer noticed his arm had a recent injection mark, and she looked through his clothing for the vial of serum, but it was not there. She looked at him and said, “Oh no, James. You didn’t.”

  She knew what he had done and felt terrible, as her friend, who was fine when he arrived, would now leave as a medical experiment. When David got back, Jennifer tried to detach herself as James’ friend and think instead as science minister. “David, we need to shut down this section of the building, call in the hazmat and DDC units to avoid contamination, and quarantine the area. He’s got to be put in a blue liquid chamber. We need to examine him while keeping it secret. So make sure security is as tight as possible.”

  As she did her job, James lay there in agony. In pain, he knew things would not be the same again. It was one impulsive moment, and now his life was changed forever.

  Time had passed, and most likely this was the last time Steven Moran would be home for a long time, if ever. He knew this would be the last time he would enjoy the holidays with his parents and friends. Even though he would see them before he went, his parents were doting over him. He noticed it and tried to help his mom, but she would hear nothing of it.

  Even his dad tried. “Eva, will you sit down and enjoy dinner? You need to relax.”

  She ignored him and told him, “Shut up, Eddie. I will do what I want. This is Steven’s day, and I want to make sure it is special.”

  Briefly, it did make him forget about the journey he would have to take. It was a great day and night at the home in which he had grown up. He saw all his friends and relatives come by to wish him good luck. Both Tommy and Johnny were there with their families, as well as Brenda with her grown children and many other family and friends.

  Toward the end of the night, he thought about the first time he had been taken, when Tommy and Johnny where teenagers and Brenda was planning their marriage. Back then, he thought he would have a normal life, but it now seemed like so long ago. Now he had a mission, and the next morning he was to be picked up by the authorities to be prepared. It would take months. He needed to be ready to be taken by the Ancient Visitors in the next six months. Today was the fifth anniversary of the day he had returned from the last abduction. Matt estimated that they would be brought back to the ship in five years and six months. So it was almost time to go, and Steven savored the last moments at home with his family.

  The next day, Steven arrived at the away facility built for Steven and the other Super Homo sapiens. There they would train for their mission and wait for the aliens to come back to abduct them again. The training would consist of running though scenarios in a massive complex that had sections built to resemble parts of the Ancient Visitors’ ship. Finally there was an area of the compound where they would be housed as they waited to be taken again. Looking around, Steven saw Cynthia limping into the compound with a bandage still on her head. “How is your recovery?” he asked with concern. “It doesn’t look so bad.”

  She raises her eyebrow as she said, “I believe I will be fine by the abduction. Hopefully, the Ancient Visitors will come to the same conclusion, and I won’t end up as food for the rest of you. If that is the case, I hope you all get heartburn.”

  As they spoke to each other, more of their friends came in and greeted them. It was not an occasion for much happiness, because the mission would most likely end in failure with their lives being lost.

  “I still can’t believe I agreed to this shit, and as it gets closer to becoming a reality the crazier it sounds,” vented an agitated D’Shawn.

  “You know we all agreed,” responded Steven.

  “I know. I was on the taskforce to develop the plan of action, but going back on to the ship to take on an alien race billions of years older than the human race with technology so advanced that it makes the NASA super computer loo
k like a caveman counting on his fingers…it is crazy. But I know time is running out, and a better plan is not in the cards.”

  Steven added, “What were our choices? I mean, look at the reality of the situation. If we do nothing, the odds are that we get abducted, and if we are lucky, we get to be one of the 66% who are returned and not the 34% who are to be food. Even those returned become overlords serving the Ancient Visitors to prepare the people of Earth to become savage warriors, and when the Ancient Visitors return in a thousand years, the two-thirds determined to be of good quality become warrior slaves and the other third become nutrition for the warriors. I don’t know about you, but I want better for my descendants. I want to leave them with hope for a better future.”

  “I know I agreed, but smuggling nanotechnology past the Ancient Visitors may not work,” argued D’Shawn.

  Quickly Steven rebuked him: “On the last abduction, three of us had nanobots in our bodies repairing injuries, and they were either not detected or were not found to be a threat to the Ancient Visitors. Since then the nanotechnology has made incredible advances. We can program microscopic nanobots and nanomicrobes to perform tasks. In this case, the nanobots carried in our bodies will have multiple tasks. They will disarm and destroy the shoulder harnesses used to keep us and the other captured races subservient. The second batch will be transferred from our bodies to the Ancient Visitors through touch, and they will attack the inner workings of the Ancient Visitors’ internal technologies. The third task is to enter their ship’s electrical systems and eat away at the vital systems. Another piece of our plan is for each of us on the teams to carry a part of the ingredients for advanced plastic explosives. Each person will carry a different ingredient that by itself will be harmless and hopefully pass through any check the Ancient Visitors do on our arrival. The final piece will be nanomicrobes that will be harmless in our bodies but will be able to devour tissue in the Ancient Visitors. None of the nanotechnologies will be harmful to us, but to the Ancient Visitors it will mean the end of their battle plans, if all goes well.”

  He had just finished rehashing the plan to D’Shawn when an Ancient Visitors ship hovered into the large opening in the roof of the common area. Most felt their hearts sputter and sweat drip from their foreheads. Even though they knew and agreed with the plan, some tried to run because they knew the deadly challenges ahead of them.

  As they nervously awaited the inevitable blackout and then waking on the main alien ship, the craft landed in the center of the common area. As it powered down, the door on the side of the craft slowly opened, and out came Matt and Marcus. The sight of them left an expression of relief on the others’ faces. After exiting the ship, they headed over to a podium to address their fellow enhanced humans.

  Matt started, “Today we start our training here in secret for a mission to save the future for the children of Earth. As you know, the plan is to defeat them before they return to take our people on to a battle to be fought for the Ancient Visitors. Our descendants would be warrior slaves for the aliens, and we can’t let that happen. So today we start working on our strategy and training for our attempt to thwart the aliens’ plans. We may fail, but if we only delay them then maybe it will give time to the people here to find a way to defend themselves. So on to the plan. We 283 will divide into ten teams.”

  At that point Cynthia corrected Matt, “There are only 282 of us. We lost Ali Mussef in the London attack.”

  Matt then advised, “We have another,” as he gestured his head to his right where a changed and weak James stood. He was taller and his limbs were longer, but the most noticeable feature was that his head had expanded. The serum had done its job and transformed him on his way to being a Super Homo sapiens. He was now one of them and was there to help execute the plan, even if he did appear unsure.

  Matt continued, “The ten teams will all have the same mission. Hopefully, the redundancy will help our cause. Now as for the ship that was flown in here, it is the ship found in the Ethiopian rock formation. Every single piece taken off to study the technology has been returned, and now it is fully operational. For the last five years, Marcus has been learning how to fly the alien craft, and thankfully he has mastered it. This, I hope, is a good thing for us because, if by some miracle we can defeat the Ancient Visitors, we will need a ride back here. We will each be trained on the ship, and hopefully that knowledge will help us operate the crafts docked on the main spacecraft.”

  Cynthia asked, “All we have are the two dead Ancient Visitors found with that ship. So how do we know if the nanomicrobes will work in their blood? This was just added to the plan, so it must have been tested somehow or are we taking a leap of faith.”

  “Up until now we have only speculated, but we have gotten a sample recently,” he said to the shocked crowd.

  Back in Washington at a council meeting, Jennifer had known about the Ancient Visitors’ fresh blood for a few weeks. She gathered the religious leaders’ United Nations subcommittee. The idea of having this blood made her scared for the first time. Up until now the enslaving of the people of Earth was a thousand years in the future, and she thought that was far enough away for people to figure out how to defeat them. But the fresh alien blood changed things in more ways than one.

  Imam Rashoni started the meeting and quickly yielded the floor to Cardinal Polanski, who started by introducing Monsignor Grazzani. “The monsignor is from Followers of Divinity territory, and he recently snuck out to potentially great peril to himself a few weeks ago. He has been in hiding while the scientists have tested the sample of blood he has been able to collect. Monsignor, please explain.”

  A short man with southern Italian features stood up and told them with a heavy heart, “I joined the Followers of Divinity, as many in my congregation have done. At first, a very charismatic speaker sways you. He convinces you that you should fight for your beliefs, but the fighting you have in your mind is not what actually happens. You think that you are on the side of good, but further investigation leads you to the truth. For some time I was starting to have doubts in what I thought was a calling, but I kept them to myself.

  “Then one day Bishop Terapion with his entourage arrived at our diocese to encourage the faithful. When he spoke, the people were hanging on every word coming out of his mouth as if it came from the lips of God. They were mesmerized from the moment he started. But toward the end of the service, one of the altar girls accidentally knocked over a large brass candleholder with sharp corners. It was innocently knocked over and struck Bishop Terapion on his left arm. Since I was one of the priests assisting in the service and closest to him, I pulled out my handkerchief from the outside of my jacket, and I pulled out the extra one I kept in my inside pocket. I quickly put them on Bishop Terapion’s wound. I thought it was odd that he covered the wound with his hand and took the handkerchief and covered it up with his vestments. The service abruptly ended, and he left with his entourage in tow.

  “I did not notice right away, but he only took one of the handkerchiefs with him, and I without thinking put the other one back into my jacket. The next day I reached into the jacket looking for something and found the other handkerchief that was still wet from the accident. I thought it was strange that it was still wet, and when I looked at it, it did not look like blood. I thought that maybe I had used it for something else, but I did not. The more I looked at it, the more I realized it was not blood. When it did not dry for a day, I thought that I had better get this checked, and that was when I contacted friends who directed me to Cardinal Polanski.”

  Cardinal Polanski added, “After hearing his story and determining that it might be significant information, we were able to smuggle him out and get the handkerchief tested. Sorry for keeping you all in the dark, but this was a very sensitive operation between the Vatican and the United Nations. If word had gotten out that the Vatican had helped us, it could have meant the Followers of Divinity directing their attention toward the Pope.”

  Jennifer the
n spoke up, “Our scientists worked on it and determined that it was of similar makeup to the two dead aliens found with the craft in Ethiopia. We believe that Bishop Terapion is, in fact, not human.”

  A confused Rabbi Wolmetz asked, “If that is the case, then why are you telling us? Is it because he is a preacher and we can give vital information on his thought process if there is an attempt to capture him? Otherwise, why do you need our input?”

  After a deep breath, she explained, “Many tests were done but one of the results came back with an odd coincidence. The two dead aliens with the craft, though still intact and much less decayed than what you would think, had some decay. Our scientist could only determine that the aliens have between 600 to 700 chromosomes. The remains were too old to get a good reading. But the fresh blood had allowed for more exact testing, and it has been determined that Bishop Terapion has 666 chromosomes.”

  Many in the room recognized the number’s significances as the mark of the antichrist as written in the Bible. Jennifer then looked around the room. “Now you know why we are looking for your perspective on this. This is another coincidence, but the coincidences are adding up. We need to work together as our two worlds collide.”

  The members of the subcommittee, religious leaders as well as the scientists, were shocked to hear this. Many of the religious leaders paused as they remembered their religion’s apocalyptic writing, and Charles, who was not one to be empty of words, was wiping the sweat off his forehead in silence.