With an understated hand signal the commander ordered his guards to stand down, they moved to the back of the room, standing to attention but with weapons facing the floor.
“22.52.05.14 we order you to take your position in the transfer pod. Your Queen needs to be energised.”
“I can’t even begin to do what you are demanding until you both explain why I MUST and what will happen to both me and Natura if I do. Clearly I know what will happen if I DON’T, so you really have no influence on me by using that tone. My name is Mae. I am not a number. I am a teenage girl and my sister Lily stands by my side because she wants to, not because she has been told to. We are humans not robots or one of your slaves.”
The commander tried to take a step towards us, simultaneously the front line of his guards also began raising their weapons, targeted on me and moved into position beside the torture chair. It was obvious that they were going to manhandle my sister imminently. I assume they had already detailed this scenario en route. I was going to be the bargaining chip, the one they could afford to lose. After all my track record showed that I was defective, having never passed the Ascension test anyway. Lily was the prize; powerful enough to enliven Natura on her own, but Lily raised the flat of her hand. The commander’s nose flattened by itself, as if pressing against glass. He stopped then, a blank expression crossed his face, some thought registered in his mind. I think his conscience was calling! Its name was Lily!
Spurred on by her awesome show of ability, I began my return from obscurity. Whilst Lily held the commander either in suspended animation or a hypnotised trance, I reasoned with my options. I was not going to be able to forcibly move through the front row guard. But I could use the power pulse to knock them off their feet momentarily. On making that decision the wave of glassy flow exited my fingers and burst into a million light beams. The resultant illumination of the entire room was vivid, shocking and blinding. Obviously the main lightning strike was directed towards the guards who sped backwards, over-balancing on furniture and opulent rugs, two men fell through the tall, garden aspect bay windows. We heard their landing broken by the bushes below. The white blindness was prolonged. They continued to stumble even as the second row of the commander’s guards leapt into well-choreographed action, fuelled by their training, a sense of pride and not a small measure of disbelief. Never during their life in the guard would they have ever encountered unrest of the kind my sister and I were unfurling in this room. I turned, realising that my power was ebbing away. With Lily holding the commander and my strength finally depleted, we were on the verge of losing what we had fought for.
However I had not bargained for the fact that my sister had clearly maintained her stance and line of communication with the commander. Unbelievably, without breaking eye contact with my sister, he lowered his hands, the sign for his guards to stand down again, they promptly obeyed, returning to the outer limits of the room.
Then he inhaled and began to speak in a calm, measured manner. Like friends talking over dinner.
“Girls it is true you have been wronged. For a while now we have questioned Natura’s harsh approach, however her attitude has been the influential element in keeping order and productivity alive inside those gates. Since the death of Eve, and the uncertainty that this brought, Natura has sought to maintain our city and protect its naive residents from the harsh reality of this New World.”
He pointed then, towards the unbroken, grand floor to ceiling bay window, lavishly framed in burgundy and gold velvet drapes. Beyond the beauty of the tree-lined garden was the outline of the city. Its majestic church towers and shining roofs could be clearly seen.
“Those pampered people in the city, no longer know the hardship experienced just two generations ago. Life is fast, greed is the new fashion, and the ‘Golden City’ just doesn’t sleep. When Natura took over, we had too many mouths to feed. No way to supply the power, to manufacture the produce necessary, which will in turn feed, clothe and keep them warm, not to mention treat them medically. Eve like her mother had been selfless, kind and caring but had not been a businesswoman. We were heading for another time of starvation, with the distinct possibility of another serious epidemic on its way from the Mono quarter. Natura decided to close our borders. Not, as you can imagine, a popular decision but completely necessary. A step someone less strong would have not dared to make. First we built a fence to keep others out, of course that then trapped us in. With no way to explore, discover new ways to keep us fed and warm, we were suffocating, setting ourselves up for a long painful extinction.
“So Natura tapped into the only advantage left. We didn’t need any more information from the maturing Seeders. We had no resources to make use of anything new. We had learnt all we needed to know about the processes and inventions developed and used by the old world, before the second generation were born. Remember Natura is herself the second generation of Acers. She matured as a physicist. It was her Evo-gene that led us towards the criminal path we are following to this day.
“She began to study the brain, the way it works on energy or for the want of a better term – electricity. Natura literally locked herself and her team in the labs. Her theory was that New Acers would be capable of emitting large amounts of electricity because they were working so hard to balance their change from Seeder to Acer. Her team worked to harness that electricity. In that lab the concept of The Grid was born. It was Natura who took the turn in the chair during the day that her theory became a reality. She had succeeded in harvesting electricity from a human brain. It was only initially enough to light a bulb but it was the beginning of a rescue plan. The system took too much from her; it unbalanced the electrical flow between her internal organs irreparably. We have been replenishing her body’s own electrical supply ever since. We tweaked the system, revised the power demand and adapted growth hormones to assist the Seeders in their maturation cycle. We only took the girls that were ready, capable of coping with the pressures of supply and demand. That is what The Harvest was for. Eventually our capability to remove electricity from a new Acer brain was powering the whole of Intentionality and for Natura most importantly the security fencing, which was keeping the plague-ravaged Monos out. We prospered once more.
“She gave herself selflessly to her people just the way her mother would have done, however her health, wellbeing and the essence of her character was in turn lost forever. She remained strong-willed but the part of her that carried empathy was immediately removed.”
I had stood transfixed by this tale, by this man searching his memory for snippets of information to explain, persuade and plead for forgiveness. A vision of Natura the victim sat uncomfortably in my mind. So, what the commander was saying in his rather glorified version of events was that New Acers were no longer welcomed in to the golden glory of Intentionality. They were kept as slaves in chairs to supply the city with the power required for people to go about their daily business, untainted by the experience hardship. Even we in The Nest had been lavished by this power, in the lights that led us through the corridors, the artificial heat, luxurious food and the computerised learning that had been so critical to our accelerated academic development. The Grid girls, to put in its most grotesque form, had been living out their short lives so that strangers could boil as many kettles as they needed for their afternoon tea. They had also sacrificed their lives albeit involuntarily, to keep away the fantasy monster of the plague, (which never seems to have existed after its initial devastating appearance following the Evo-shift). Natura’s orders were clearly fed by her misinformed view of imminent danger.
At what point in time in this new ‘post Evo-shift’ world had that amount of inhumanity become acceptable? My mind was now racing through a mountain of blame. If this heart-warming story of selflessness was in fact true, yes Natura is prime culprit. But so too are the people who allowed her to continue in power.
“You really aren’t convincing me of any need to start up that woman’s mind again. Why didn’
t anyone stop her? And while you are explaining life as we know it in Intentionality, what did she want with my sister and me?”
He didn’t have time to comment further because we all turned our heads to assess the scuffle in the corridor and the resultant arrival of Craig in full military apparel. Behind him stood Luke and behind him a rather too glamorous army commander.
Summer swept in, supported by her Resistance Guards, immediately weighing up the danger in the room and I have no doubt secretly assessing the possibility of having an enormous takeover party. Old habits die hard!
“Commander, I am Commander Summer I shall be relieving you of your command as of now. My guards will escort you to the holding area along with your soldiers where you will await new orders. You can choose to join a reformed government and stand alongside us as an informant, or you can stand trial as the accomplice to a murderer.”
The commander lowered his head in surrender. His demeanour was more relief than hostility. He marched out of the room co-operatively alongside the soldiers of both his outgoing guard and The Resistance incoming authority.
It was over for my sister and I, we had been saved…
The high-pitched alarm connected to the ruler of Intentionality was silenced, the decision of redemption or punishment removed from my responsibility. In the end she had been without oxygen for too long, her disability was too critical, her body had become ravaged by time. We could not now have saved her, even if we wanted to.
Our thoughts travelled to those Grid girls once more, the possibility of their recovery, the whereabouts of those who had been enslaved before them, why we were the only twins in existence and of course eventually to our mother.
Forty-six
A mental head count told me that my sister, Willem, Skye, Craig, Luke, Mrs Alder and Summer were all alive and well. Of course Dawn was on The Nest still, so I assumed she was protected. However I had no way of knowing what the circumstances were like for the others in our party. Had Natura’s guards begun fighting to protect what little they had left of the command? Or was there in fact only a skeleton army employed because no one expected to be challenged? If the commander was to be trusted (I had no doubt he was telling the truth to save his beloved leader) the citizens of Intentionality were not the rioting type, why would they be? Living in their spoilt luxurious bubble of wealth, health and beauty; it seems to me they would only begin to question once the power went off.
This imminent situation was the one we were to overcome next.
As Summer released me from a bear hug, which constricted my breathing more than the wet suit in the sub, she handed me a palm held tablet device. It detailed our next steps…
1. Lily and I were to be escorted out of the morgue and into the meeting rooms along the corridor. The palace was not yet safe but neither was it well guarded.
Mrs Alder had succeeded in uploading the programme that was to reactivate The Grid girls but it meant that they were no longer supplying the electricity for the city or the perimeter fencing. We were invited to add our opinions to the discussion.
I had noticed Luke and Craig leaving soon after the commander. I assumed that they would be at the meeting too.
2. We were then to be escorted to the medical bay. A physician had asked us for our knowledge of the chairs, in order to further their understanding of The Grid girls’ experience. Further information of any kind may aid their recovery.
We left the grandeur of Natura’s quarters soon after the guards secured it, her weeping maids making the body presentable for a hurriedly planned broadcast to the citizens of Intentionality. Summer had been given this as her orders just before passing the tablet on to me.
There seemed to be no real opportunity to say any more to our beloved friend Summer as we were escorted away from her all too quickly. She appeared to be thriving in her new role as commander-in-chief of this little situation. We promised to meet up later in the hurriedly prepared canteen, even guardians of the city needed to eat! Lily and I kissed Summer one last time, and left her to continue on her mission.
As we entered the meeting room it became apparent that a heated discussion regarding the disposal of Natura was in full passionate swing.
“… and in my book criminals don’t get state funerals,” spat Craig.
“I don’t agree to her body being pandered to by any of my Monos. If they want her dealt with they can do it themselves!”
It had been agreed by the incoming government that Natura’s passing would be better accepted with less chance of complete panic, if the people were allowed to say goodbye. As was usual when Eve and Eden passed away, there would be a state funeral. Craig and especially Luke fought vehemently against this option.
However Mrs Jones calmed the situation, describing this state funeral as ‘a simpler and far quicker resolution to the issue of a new government being accepted’ if the people were to be allowed to follow their traditions, they would be far more inclined to trust us to make fair decisions over other more urgent matters. The Mono maids could work with Natura’s body efficiently and effectively over the next few hours and then a broadcast could be made as early as this evening, thus speeding the transition and halting the mistreatment of any more Monos a moment longer than necessary. Anything short of that, she surmised, may result in bloodshed that would be forever on his conscience.
I have to say she was incredibly impressive as a negotiator.
The transition from a dictatorship for some would be positive. The hundreds of Monos working in glorified slavery would be free to choose where they wished to live and what they would do as a career path. They stood to gain immensely from this new necessary shift of power. The Acers stood to lose. There was no way of sugar coating their losses in this. Natura had ‘wrapped them in sheepskin and fed them by hand’. They were, never the less, very self-sufficient, highly academic professionals. That fact must not be forgotten or underestimated but they had been living a fairy tale. Soon and I mean within the next seven days, the truth would out. Some no doubt would be appalled as my sister and I were. Others will fight the change, believing the ideas of Natura to be correct. The Acers were always considered to be the better human set, because of their Evo-Gene. They would need monumental amounts of coaching to see it any other way.
For Lily and I, and all of the girls who owed our lives and emotional development to the Monos on The Nest, it would be a relief to see our friends treated as equal. A government where all sets were represented was the only logical route to take.
“Mae, Lily, how wonderful to see that you are unharmed. We feared for your survival once we had heard that you had been captured,” smiled Mrs Jones.
“Mrs Jones I can’t tell you what a relief it was to see Summer sweep authoritatively in through those double doors. Lily and I had tried all we could but we were booked in on that torture chair and there was only a one-way ticket as far as that horrible woman was concerned!”
“We must not keep you here for long, however we would like to ask if Natura told you directly why she had developed your sister and yourself so specifically. Skye has been able to identify what The Grid girls were there for and that is beyond belief, but there is no record of why she engineered twins. There must have been a reason. I suppose we are looking for some hidden problem that we want to be aware of before it becomes an emergency in the coming months.”
That is a good question. I think we can assume that as she had been patiently waiting seventeen years for us to become useful, there is no imminent danger. However we were quite clearly part of her forward planning.
“She didn’t divulge much of her forward planning. She was more intent on boasting about what she had done to our mother. We are clones of a person with extraordinary powers. Apparently she exhibited enormous energy potential. I can only assume Natura’s plans were fuelled by greed and the need to feed, clothe and entertain those needy citizens in the city. I think we were just a larger electrical resource, Mrs Jones, nothing more than that. She just ha
dn’t considered the side effect of the other powers our mother would pass on. My only disappointment is that she didn’t stay alive long enough to know that she had been defeated,” I replied whimsically.
“Yes, Mae feeding those greedy citizens is our next dilemma. Of course we don’t need the perimeter fence to be electrified any longer, as Natura’s nightmare has come true, we have invaded! But those people and of course our future citizens do need power to go about their mundane lives. If you think that we are not in immediate danger of an emergency, I will ask Julia and Elizabeth to escort you to the medical bay, they have been desperately worried about your welfare since strapping you into the transporter pod.”
“Torture chair, Mrs Jones, let’s not perpetuate the illusion!” I retorted as Lily ran towards the slowly opening white wooden doors.
Forty-seven
The sorrow in the eyes of Elizabeth and Julia was apparent, even when well disguised by the smiles that both girls had pasted on their faces. I had somehow transferred my knowledge in that preparation cylinder. In the same way that Lily was able to communicate with the commander. The girls were in mourning, for their father the Grand Acer.
They took us straight to the medical unit without asking a thing from me. I made a mental commitment to them on that journey, that as soon as possible I would return to the sunken sub and endeavour to give the Grand Acer an appropriate farewell. I would take his daughters to the beach where we surfaced in order to show them how brave their father was, how his actions changed the situation for many Monos. I hope that after the grief has relented they can be proud of his legacy. I will certainly do all I can to make sure their future is a safe and privileged one.
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