BEYOND EXTINCTION

by John Keeble

  His carefully-built equilibrium shatters as his mind ricochets off a new mediamat list of evacuees and touches the flashpoint of Commander Aindrea. That damned criminal is murdering us all and his wives are being evacuated as survivors!

  Ra bows his head, a calming prayer for his wives as they die in agony, but it does not work: he cannot let go of his anger and hate. Aindrea did this on purpose. He knew he would kill us all by bringing rot death into FedOz. He knew he would kill me! He had a plan. He will save himself and his wives will go free.

  The pain in his rotting feet and lower legs is consuming his concentration but feeding his hatred. He has not been diagnosed positive; as the Director, no one can make him take the test. But neither he nor the medical officer needs to be told they have the virus.

  He ignores the tingling pain in his fingers and types an order. Commander Aindrea's wives are to be sent immediately to the human animal slaughter line. Maybe no one will do it but he feels a spiteful satisfaction in issuing the order.

  "Director, may I speak to you?"

  The doctor! What does he want? "Yes, of course, Commander Doctor."

  "I have bad news."

  "Bad news? How can the news get any worse?"

  "It does. Rot death has been confirmed in NewLife City. We cannot stop it."

  "That's the end, isn't it? There will be no survivors anywhere in our territory."

  "I fear not."

  Maybe one. The murderer.

  *

  Professor Galen is not content in his Andes lab. There is a smell of animal blood and that means the risk of data contamination. "Lichas! Come here!" he shouts. There is no answer. "Imbecile," he mutters and starts inspecting his equipment for blood.

  Can no one do what I command? Balen has gone wild – but she will suffer. Lichas cannot carry out the simplest tasks. When Balen is dead, I'll downgrade Lichas to a numan3 service animal – except, for him, that will be an upgrade.

  Galen finds the contamination. Thick encrusted blood coats the blade and drain of a computer-controlled dissection unit. Blood is spattered over the monitoring equipment. Disgraceful. It has been here days.

  "Lichas! Where are you, you halfwit animal?"

  "I am here, Professor," calls Lichas, gratifyingly alarmed, his head poking between the double doors from the vivisection animal pens. "I'm coming with your human animals."

  In a sudden commotion, the doors burst open with Lichas at the front and six terrified vivisection animals being herded by three numan3s wielding animal ticklers.

  Galen casts a professional eye over his animals. His work would be easier if he could keep them calm but drugs distort experimentation readings. The animal tickler is the only way. He sighs. If Father Dick did not want this, he would not have put human animals on the Earth for our use. Spiteful amusement flickers in his mind. The Digipope's cant has some uses!

  "Lichas. There is human animal blood on unit seven."

  "My apologies, Professor," says Lichas. "The military has taken all my help here. I cannot—."

  "I am not interested in your snivels. Just get the equipment decontaminated."

  This is not the best way to get results. What will I do if Lichas refuses to work here?

  Galen looks over his human animals. Three females, three males. Their bodies have that slight glow of the disinfectant used to remove the worst of the filth and much of the stink. Several are trembling and they all look alarmed and fearful. They are only animals but they know something is going to happen to them. They are all adequately nourished. All mature and not scrag age.

  Galen points at one of the females and a numan3 grabs it by the ear and drags it to him. He flicks his fingers and the numan3 pulls the human animal's nose and jaw apart. Galen peers in. Students are always surprised what can be learned from a human animal's teeth and mouth.

  He flicks towards a male and a second numan3 drags it by its ear and tries to force open its mouth. The animal panics and fights, kicking out and catching Galen on the knee.

  "Ahhh!" it screams as the numan3 jams the animal tickler in its side. It falls to the floor, moaning and writhing.

  Galen, mind control locking out the pain in his knee, takes the animal tickler. He looks directly at the numan3, which begins to tremble like a human animal. The numan3 knows the punishment. Galen switches the tickler's control to maximum and rests it against the nerve-nexus built into every numan3. He pulls the trigger and the numan3's scream echoes through the building.

  The human animal tries to rise. "Not so fast," says Galen, prizing open its unresisting jaws. "These animals are adequate, Lichas. Place them in the sanitized area, decontaminate them, no food or water whatsoever. The others can go back to the holding pens."

  Galen walks out. Even an idiot like Lichas can manage that. He goes to his mediamat and looks at the schematic of the spy equipment in Balen's drone. He follows the highlighted control routes for the micro-cameras and the rot death virus canister.

  Finally, he is content. All is well.

  *

  Alice is immobilized in the drone's tiny medlab. It is nearly 18 hours since self-infusing her experimental DNA design and Aleksi is running tests on her. A piece of living numan machinery waiting to be fixed.

  Jack and Max are by her side and Aapeli is close, following the process as Aleksi teaches him how to use the diagnostic equipment. The Galen-rebuild sits at the back of the drone, his wrist secured to the armrest.

  Alice retreats into her thoughts as the scans check every function of her body and mind. It has been such a long and painful road from being Galen's broodmare and slave to being free with Jack. This is the end of that road: will Jack come with me on a new road?

  "This feels good," she tells Aapeli, looking approvingly at him and the diagnostic machine. "I can tell that you are doing a good job of checking me." What a lovely boy. He's more like a son.

  "I am content with your comfort, ambi," he replies and there is a twinkle in his eyes. "But I need more practice. Can you do some more experiments on yourself so that I can practice diagnosing you?"

  She laughs and pretends to hit him as he ducks out of the way.

  "Alice," says Jack. "I can see you are in good hands. I want to check the troopers. Yesterday's episode with the numan2s made me realize how slack we have become with security."

  "Okay but please stay close."

  "I'll be back before Aapeli has finished torturing you." He turns away to the drone door and Max nudges Alice's leg with his nose and follows Jack.

  Almost as soon as Jack leaves, Galen's rumble fills the medlab. Alice looks up, scans for the direction of the sound. How is he doing that? What systems monitor location by location?

  "Balen," he says, "I have sent you written instructions. You can turn on the drone's telecoms. The instructions are in an encrypted file. Open it with your biometrics and the symbols identity protocol that I designed for you."

  "And let the military find us? No!" says Alice, her hostility burning through her. I must let him think I will obey his commands, but I can't make it too easy for him.

  "We have always known your location. I have been watching you experiment on yourself – I warn you, if you are using my designs to upgrade yourself to numan6, you will fail."

  "Like you, Galen? You have failed many times. When will the military arrive to capture us?"

  "Soon. I can stop them if you fulfill your duty to my work. I can save you from the rot death pandemic."

  "Are you safe?" she asks quickly, the concerned wife. "Where are you?" If he tells me, I've got him!

  "I am safe in the northern Andes. It may be possible for you to join me at some stage."

  Alice is aware of Aleksi and Aapeli looking at her in alarm. They are frightened but I cannot tell them anything yet.

  Galen's voice cuts off and seconds later Jack walks into the drone with a cheery hail of "All's well."

  Alice smiles her welcome but her mind is on the drone's systems. Galen knew Jack was coming but only seco
nds before he spoke to her. Galen's link is limited to the interior security system!

  "They are just about finished with me," she says. "Let's find a dry spot outside and talk."

  She goes ahead, down the stairs, and runs through the belting rain to the drone's sheltering wing. Jack splashes in behind her and Max shakes himself. "Thanks, Max. That was very helpful," she says.

  "What shall we talk about?" he asks her.

  "Did you bring the mediamat? I want you to read the report that I wrote for you."

  "I'll read that tomorrow. Today I'm watching you."

  "Oh, I'm all right." She puts her arm around his waist as they watch the rain, and sadness grips her. My poor Jack. What will happen when he reads the report?

  *

  Chapter 34

  Director Ra hobbles through the deserted FedOz Genetics Research Center, his hand smearing the corridor wall as he uses it for support. There is no sound. Laboratory doors, once secured obsessively, are ajar and no one cares. Except Ra, who painfully closes them.

  He is too ill for this trek but the knowledge of rot death remorselessly eating his body makes sitting in his office impossible. The screams of his wives keep him away from his home. I hope that treacherous murderer Aindrea is screaming in agony in his laboratory!

  He catches sight of his fingertips, a visual link to the growing pains in his hands and arms. His shoulders are tingling, the precursor to pain and rotting. Soon the rot death will start eating into my face.

  "Ahhh!" he shrieks as his foot catches on a discarded bundle of laboratory samples and, agony heaped on agony, he falls heavily.

  He lies, immobile, trying to recover enough control of his body to get up. Why am I here? Why bother when I can just wait for death on the couch in my office?

  Unbidden, unacceptable, a thought shocks him. I could die now. I do not have to wait for an agonizing death.

  A sly procession of images insinuates itself into his consciousness. His unused laboratory has every kind of way to destroy life. The chemicals printer... the dissection knives... Not them! The electrical shockers used on human animals to test resilience in DNA upgrades.

  "Your body is my temple and the spirit of the Divine Consciousness dwells within you. You are not soulless like a human animal. You have an immortal soul. If you destroy my temple, the Divine Consciousness will take your immortal soul and cast it into the bottomless pit of suffering."

  Ra, like every numan, knows Father Dick's commandments and sacred warnings. But does he believe them? Suicide is a mortal sin but I am a scientist; I have never found any evidence of a Divine Consciousness. Or a soul.

  If there is no Divine Consciousness, why does he need to suffer? Why not end it all now? How can there be a Divine Consciousness that allows every life on the planet to be wiped out?

  Ra grits his teeth and hauls himself onto the dying stumps that were once live and mobile feet. He lurches towards his laboratory.

  Someone else will have to finish my report on staff absence due to rot death.

  *

  Alice's two troopers emerge from the drone soon after dawn. They scan the area for numan2s and the skies for military drones.

  Jack follows them, for once giving in to Alice's insistence that he should let the troopers do their job and go first. He drags a chair from the dry area under the drone's wing root and flops in it. Max and Xam sniff around and join him. Even the dogs seem down today. We are all worried about Alice. He sets his mediamat on his lap ready for use.

  She's inside. She says she feels good but she is not her usual healthy self. She should be over the upgrade effects by now.

  Aapeli and Aleksi emerge from the drone for their regular morning walk by the Euphrates.

  "Aleksi," Jack calls. "Take a blaster. Make sure you're safe. I don't trust those numan2s after what happened yesterday."

  Aleksi turns towards Jack. "I would be more content if one of the troopers, with his blaster, walks with Aapeli and I stay with you."

  "As you wish, my friend, but I have what I think is a challenging report to read."

  "I know," says Aleksi, who is getting the hang of easy words and a human smile. "Alice told me. She said you might want some technical explanations. There may be parts I cannot follow, and then we'll have to ask Alice."

  "Thank you, Aleksi, but I can manage," he replies, hiding his offense at their assumption that he cannot follow genetics arguments.

  "When I needed help, you helped me, Jack. Let me help you now as your friend."

  Jack sighs, trapped by kindness. "OK, Aleksi. Let's get on with it."

  On the screen, Jack reads Alice's words as if she is saying them.

  Jack, my precious numanX, please remember that our lives have changed in so many ways and what I did in Cambridge and Abbotsford belongs to that old life. I give you this, written from my memory because I have no records, as a gift for the future. Please understand that what we have now is our chance of happiness together. Remember, I am your numan4 wife with a human animal heart.

  NumanX: The Concept

  Overview: The joint scientific working party of the World Council and the Military High Command requires the development of a numan4 variant capable of extended functions. These enhanced numan4s will be known as "numanX" variants. The project will be led by Commander Professor Galen.

  Jack reads slowly, weighing each word. It is clear enough. The World Council and the Military High Command gave Galen whatever resources he wanted to produce working numanX rebuild prototypes – his vivisection stock comprised 83 numan2s, 976 human animals, 236 nonhuman animals, 13 numan4s... Jack stops reading to consider. They gave him 13 numan4 "recidivists and malcontents."

  "Aleksi, what does the report mean by numan4 recidivists and malcontents?"

  "Ah, those terms usually mean senior men who cannot accept the political guidance of their superiors. We never talk about them if possible – it's too dangerous to comment on them."

  "Thank you." He continues reading.

  NumanX Objectives

  1. To extend and control the numan4 intellectual parameters.

  2. To determine how significant amounts of useful data can be stored in numan4 DNA strings.

  3. To determine how such storage can be used for World Council and military purposes.

  4. To determine how such storage can be protected from unauthorized access.

  The years roll back for Jack as he reads about the Cambridge lab where he worked but, in the growing heat of the Mesopotamian day, the events flow through Jack's mind like someone else's story.

  Where were the vivisectionists working? There were no live experiments in my lab.

  He follows Alice's descriptions, aspects entirely missing from his memories but utterly convincing in details. She and Galen were there. Where? I never saw them.

  Live experiments and dissections were performed at Bletchley Park, 80 kilometers southwest of Cambridge, where Military High Command codebreakers routinely penetrated sensitive World Council communications traffic.

  Alice knew about it? What kind of security clearance did she have?

  The descriptions of the vivisection establishment – a sealed-off lab complex within the Bletchley Park Military Communications Center – are as familiar as they are frightening: older versions of what Jack saw at Galen's Abbotsford Genetics Research Center. The thought of Alice being part of the programme sends a shudder of revulsion through him. The woman I love, the woman who shares every part of my life, is guilty of cold-blooded torture and murder on a massive scale.

  Jack sits back and stares into the distance. His mind is on Alice, his eyes on the peaceful river, but he is aware of Aleksi watching him anxiously. To Alice, it wasn't murder. Except maybe the numan2s and 4s. Humans were animals used for scientific experiments that would benefit numans. No different from humans, in history, using nonhuman animals. Should those experiments be called murder?

  "Are you all right, Jack?" asks Aleksi.

  "Yes," he replies, and con
tinues.

  NumanX Trials

  1. From the first experiment, results could not match predictions. The theories appeared correct but the outcomes varied widely. The most probable cause was the RootStock Paradox.

  2. The high cost of the project was disguised by the military, which sidestepped original estimates to supply extra researchers and replace animal deaths which were running at more than 20 a day.

  3. Nonhuman animals were more predictable in trials. They were soon ruled out as suitable for DNA memory text inserts but Galen, alone among all the researchers, realized they could be modified to carry vast cassettes of DNA from many creatures. He ultimately hived off this research as a private project kept secret from everyone.

  But not from you, Alice!

  4. Human animals showed promising initial results when their DNA was stripped back to the most primitive levels and slowly rebuilt to numan specifications. However, they proved to be too unstable at advanced levels. Some were numanely put down and the rest of the stock was moved to other projects.

  5. Numan2s were more suitable but did not, in practice, meet theoretical possibilities for data packing in their DNA strings. The test stock was numanely destroyed to avoid complications in their Animalization Ritual certificates.

  6. Numan4s were the most suitable within the limitations of the RootStock Paradox. Of the 13 test subjects, only two survived. Three died during Galen's experiments. Eight were numanely put down as unsuitable for further use.

  Jack, do you remember Galen explaining the RootStock Paradox? Briefly, it means that numans can be stripped back to their human DNA roots but rebuilding them in a different form, even using known and tried DNA texts, produces unpredictable results. Galen speculates that this is because varying species memories and instinctive reactions are encoded and form contradictory clusters. I am less sure but, as you know, Galen can never be wrong.

  "Have you seen this report, Aleksi?" asks Jack. "How do you feel about numan2s and numan4s being used in experiments?"

  "Alice showed me the report. The numan2s and the numan4s were no longer people. They had transgressed Father Dick's commandment to honor their parents, in their cases, their superiors. They had been tried, found guilty, and reduced to animal status."