The Upper Worlds (The Soul Survivor Series Book 1)

by Van Forson

  “Are you secretly a Cm like my ma or what?” I laughed.

  “Better to be safe than sorry,” Sal said handing me the half-full cup.

  I downed the drink in one shot.

  “Yuck.” I spluttered falling to my knees gagging.

  Sal crouched next to me, “I told you Capsing was no joke. To temporarily alter your DNA can affect you in so many different ways.”

  “What’s going on with Kid?” Jet asked, rushing into the tent.

  Sal cracked her knuckles, “I’ve just given her the formula to Caps.”

  “Whatever she does, so do I.” Jet said grabbing the other beaker and downing it in one gulp.

  “Arrgh.” Jet fell to the floor.

  Skye ran to his side but couldn’t do anything to help as he squirmed and wriggled on the ground.

  “Are they alright?”

  “That’s just the effects of their DNA structure reforming. They’ll be fine.” Sal said.

  “They don’t look fine.” Skye rasped.

  “I’m an expert. I’ve Capsed loads of times, many different ways. They’ll be ok.”

  Sal had Capsed plenty but had never made a bespoke formula for someone else. Watching it was freaky.

  “This is frightening,” Skye said, her eyebrows knitted with concern with what she saw.

  Kid’s body began to stretch taller and widen thicker. Her once baggy hoody now fitting tightly around her new chubby torso.

  Jet matured rapidly into adulthood. Lines formed under his eyes and a thick dark moustache and beard sprouted from his face.

  Sal breathed a deep sigh of relief as the process came to an end.

  “Where are the uniforms?” Sal asked.

  Skye froze in awe, at her friend’s new appearances.

  “Skye! Snap out of it and get the clothes please.”

  Skye tentatively picked up her backpack and unfolded two satellite workers uniforms.

  “Whoa. What a rush!” I said, sitting up in a daze, a deep male baritone replaced my normal voice.

  “Look at you!” I laughed at my brother as a full-grown man.

  “Well look at you!” Jet laughed throatily slapping my new broad back with his big shovel hands.

  “Look at yourselves,” Sal said, pulling out her IM and projecting our image back to us.

  I touched my face not believing it was mine. My soft skin and feminine features were gone, replaced by a middle-aged man’s face with a moustache and stubble.

  “How long does this last?” I asked, marvelling at myself.

  “Not long,” Sal said impressed at her handiwork, “you’ll have to be quick. In about three hours you will begin to change into your normal form. It will be too dangerous for you to be in the Upper Worlds then. Your image has been everywhere; you’ll be recognised instantly.”

  “True.” I agreed and changed quickly into my new clothes.

  Jet continued to ogle himself, “I’m buff!” He laughed.

  Sal smirked, and Skye giggled.

  The roar of Jahni and Pepo’s aero bikes ended our fun.

  “The Res told us to get you to the Upper Worlds by nightfall. It’s time we were leaving.”

  Jahni wasn’t there to joke around. He had been given strict orders from The Res, and he would be a fool not to carry them out to the letter.

  “Everyone Upper Worlds bound jump on,” Pepo said, light-heartedly.

  “You know the rendezvous spot, meet you there in four hours,” I said to Sal.

  “Yep,” Sal said. “That should give us just enough time to carry out what you asked us to do.”

  “Be safe,” Skye whispered to Jet.

  “I’m a man now I can look after myself,” he joked, “you take good care ok.”

  “Let’s get going.” Jahni beeped his horn impatiently.

  Jet and I ran awkwardly in our new bulky bodies, to our transport. We waved one last time before we sped off on the back of Jahni and Pepo’s aero bikes.

  Skye and Sal waved back before picking up their backpacks and saying their goodbyes to the smattering of TL at the campsite. They had to be off too. They had an important mission of their own to complete.

  Do you hear it beating?

  The motor your blood runs through.

  Your heart’s wisdom is speaking,

  To the very essence of you.

  Eighteen: Listen To Your Heart

  Under the cover of darkness, two black aero bikes manoeuvred stealthily down Glycena Avenue. Jahni pulled his bike to a halt but kept the engine running; he didn’t intend on stopping for long. Pepo followed suit. The Upper Worlds made the Urbanities feel uneasy.

  “Number 25, we're here,” Jahni said gruffly.

  “Thanks for the ride,” I said, taken aback by the masculine voice leaping from my vocal chords.

  “Be careful now,” Pepo advised, “you’re our only hope.”

  “We’ll do our best.” Jet said in his new gravelly tone.

  They saluted us both before riding off into the night.

  As we walked to our doorstep, I relished the air of familiarity. I had missed home so much.

  “What are we going to say to them? Jet asked.

  I hadn’t thought it through. I just desperately needed to see my ma and dad again. And I knew it was now or never.

  Before we had time to concoct a story, the home security sensors read our eye scans.

  ‘Access granted.’ It beeped, and the front door slid open.

  Although our biometric structure had altered and our appearance was different, our core DNA remained the same.

  We cautiously stepped into our home.

  “Who goes there?” Milan’s small voice rang out as she shuffled towards the door.

  “Ma!” Jet ran and swept her off her feet.

  Milan looked bewildered but was not afraid, instantly recognising her son.

  “Jet. But how? I don’t understand?” She said gently holding his face. “Did the Authorities do this to you?”

  “No, we did it to ourselves. We Capsed, so we could come and see you.”

  “Where’s Kid?” Milan asked desperately.

  Jet loosened his hug and stepped aside to reveal the other man standing behind him.

  “Hello, ma,” I said gruffly.

  “Oh, my stars!” Milan exclaimed. “Is that you Keziah?”

  I nodded, tears streaming down my face. I had not cried since Wain's death but now was as good a time as any.

  Ma stretched her arms around Jet and me, and we hugged as if our lives depended on it. Tomorrow was my birthday, and I would be sixteen years old. Being at home was the only present I wanted.

  “Where’s Dad?” I asked, muffled. I wanted to see him too, to apologise, explain or something before I went.

  Milan sighed, “He’s working late, trying to impress his superiors, show what a good citizen he is. He’s been doing it ever since you two…” she trailed off.

  I didn’t have to hear any more. I knew my father’s Type. He would be doing everything in his power to make sense of this.

  “Have we ruined his life ma?” Jet asked.

  “You didn’t ruin him. I think it was the opposite way around.”

  I took a step back.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Milan looked up to both of her children then sighed even louder, “I never imagined the day would come where I'd have to tell you this, but it has. Follow me.”

  We walked into the kitchen, and ma rummaged about the old science books on the desktop. Jet and I looked at each other puzzled and perched awkwardly at the table.

  Ma opened a handwritten book and pulled out a nanochip attached to the back inside cover. She blew on it to remove the dust, then placed it into the house operating system. A projection appeared at the centre of the room.

  “Can I get you two anything to eat, some nuts, liquid calcium?”

  “No, ma,” I said anxiously. I just wanted to know what was going on.

  A range of old images filled th
e room.

  “What is this?” Jet asked.

  “It's our family album,” Milan said, zapping the projection. “But more than that it’s our family history before you were born.”

  The recording displayed our dad as a child with his parents, and Ma speeded it through to his graduation before he enrolled into the scientific training institute at Techno Corp. He received his diploma and smiled proudly. He was the youngest student in the line up by far.

  “Your dad was a brilliant man,” Milan smiled absentmindedly, “So creative. He wanted to do good in this world. Not just create enhancers for people to alter their attributes as he does now. I married him because although he’s a logical brain and I’m an emotional empath, we held the same vision; we wanted to make a positive difference in this world.”

  The image flicked to a teenage girl joining dad on the podium. He kissed her cheek, and the girl blushed.

  “Is that you ma?’ Jet laughed.

  “Yes, that’s me,” Milan said cheerily.

  I squinted at the screen. The old professor giving my father the diploma was small, white haired with a crook in his walking cane.

  “Do you know the professor giving out the awards?”

  “Oh, the ancient looking fella. He was a Dr something or other. He was your father's philosophy teacher. He would talk in riddles. I think he may have been a Sap.”

  Jet nodded at me as he too realised Dr Stoneway had ties to our family since our parents were teenagers.

  Milan scrolled through a set of images, stopping at one showing the day I was born.

  “When you were small your father would film everything. He didn’t want to miss a single bit of your development.”

  A nurse handed the baby to my proud parents. I smiled to myself as I recognised Lady Zono. It looked as if the mystics had also been guiding and guarding me all along.

  “Your father was sure that there must be a way to develop the missing Human element, the potential for infinite possibilities, back into our species. With that ability Code Types and Tachions would be able to think out of their pre-destined Type. Imagine what the world would be like if we had the gift of possibility.”

  Milan spoke in low conspiratorial tones as if William Admiral himself could be listening from the next room.

  “This is, of course, in direct conflict with the Authoritarian ideals of the Upper Worlds. They want everything in a strict order. Even perfection is regulated. As long as there are Types, then people are kept in their place. If there is no Type then who knows what might happen?”

  “So?” I asked.

  “So, your father secretly engineered genetic materials at home. He wanted to see if he could reverse the evolutionary process. In essence, this would give our species the ability do more, like our forefathers, be more - ”

  “Human?” Jet asked beginning to understand.

  “Yes. He wanted to see if his theory was right, but needed a living example. And what better variables to study than his own children.”

  “What!” Jet and I said together.

  “He never intended to harm you, honestly. He just wanted to be able to create beings who could do more for each other, more for the world.”

  “What did he do to us ma?”

  “He claims nothing,” Milan said, scrolling the image further along.

  The projection was of Jet and me as little children pushing each other on a hoverboard in the outdoor sector.

  “And at first I believed him. Your father worked on both of you during the gestation period before your birth. I suspected that he might have tried to enhance your embryos with other hormones alongside those administrated to you by the state. When you were born he diligently observed your development.

  “And.” Jet said in his regular voice. Gone was the gravel tone, the Capsing effects were beginning to wear off.

  “And nothing. Neither of you displayed a range of attributes like your father had wished. It was very much the reverse; you didn't develop a Type at all.”

  “That’s why dad treats us like he does, he’s disappointed his little science project didn’t work out.” Jet said bitterly.

  I wasn’t upset. Everything finally made sense to me.

  “Dad based the success of his experiment on the wrong data. He expected us to be like multi-faceted Code Types. He didn't understand that's not what Humans are. Humans are regular. Humans are ordinary. And that's precisely what makes them so special. I doubt the Humans back in the day realised how unique they were. That's why they evolved themselves out of existence.”

  The events over the last few weeks slotted together, like a puzzle, to create the bigger picture. Unbeknown to my dad he had created the Humans the mystics had predicted, but he couldn't identify our potential because he didn't have it himself. “Takes one to know one,” Poppy had told me in Commania, and now I got what she meant.

  “So do you have the Human element? Is The Prophecy real?”

  “It's real ma.”

  “But how can you be so sure?” Milan sniffed as tears ran down her face. “I want to believe you, I do, but the Officials say this is all fiction, ‘Prophecy is Fallacy’, maybe genetically something is askew, you need help. Please let me help you.”

  There was nothing more my ma could do for me.

  “Believe me ma. Believe in me.” I said simply. “And tell dad that he didn’t fail with his experiment. Jet and I are both beautifully Human.”

  It felt good to understand what that meant finally. Our predecessors may have wasted their gifts and talents, but I certainly wasn’t going to.

  Just then the front door flew open. Jet and I stood up on high alert.

  “Hi honey, I’m finally home,” Bibi called out wearily as he walked into the kitchen.

  He stared at the two strapping men in his house. Jet and I stared back.

  “So, Mrs Monrova, we can have your new Satellite system installed in the next twelve hours if you make the payment right away.” I blurted out.

  “What is this for?” Bibi asked.

  “A new satellite system,” I answered before ma could blow our cover.

  “Our records show that you have the Neptune 80, an older style system, we could upgrade you to version 90.”

  After everything I had just heard I knew it wouldn’t be wise to reveal our true identity to our dad.

  “I am aware that ours is not the latest in home entertainment, but it works perfectly fine, so we’ll have to decline your offer. Thank you.” Bibi said rigidly, taking control of the situation like he always did.

  “Well thank you anyway, Mr Monrova,” I said shaking my dad's hand rigorously.

  Jet did the same but ended his handshake with a hug.

  Bibi looked quizzical about the sudden affectionate embrace from the satellite worker.

  “We’ll be going now.” I strode quickly to the door.

  “Thank you, Mrs Monrova, for everything.” I said looking back at my ma one last time.

  Milan managed a weak smile, “And thank you. May all things of love, beauty and joy walk with you all of your days.”

  I grabbed Jet’s rocket sneaks, and as we exited our house I heard dad say,

  “What was all that about?”

  ***

  Jet wiped his teary wrinkled eyes with the back of his shovel like hand and sniffled, he wasn’t one for all of that weepy stuff but seeing his parents again made him realise how much he had missed them.

  “I’m glad we got to spend time with ma, now let’s get out of here.”

  “I’ve got one last thing to do, which isn’t going to be easy,” I said looking next door.

  “What last thing?” Jet hissed. “Ma might tell dad, and then there’ll be Officials all over the road. We've got to go, now!”

  “One minute Jet,” I said, trotting over to Max’s house.

  Through the window, I spied Max downstairs with his parents.

  “Kid, let’s go!” Jet said as his burly muscles deflated rapidly revealing his puny
arms.

  The Capsing effects were wearing off fast.

  “One moment,” I said as I zoomed up the wall.

  “Kid. Don’t!” Jet whispered after me, but it was too late, I disappeared into Max’s bedroom.

  Max had been a faithful friend my entire life. In these familiar surroundings, I felt like a little girl again. Here I could zoom around in Jet’s rocket sneaks and worry about why my Code Type hadn’t kicked in, not save the world, from a negative force that no one even knew existed.

  I typed a message onto Max’s aero pad and projected the message into the middle of the room. I took one more fond look at Max’s bedroom before climbing out of the window.

  “Are you crazy?” Jet moaned as his body shrunk to normal size and his moustache and beard fell out to reveal his regular baby face.

  “Let’s go,” I said, running across the garden into the darkness. Jet ran right behind me.

  All the while the Orbs were watching.

  ***

  Sal and Skye’s first stop on the list of tasks set them by Kid was Philippe’s house. They knocked the door once, and almost instantly he answered.

  “Expecting someone?” Sal asked cracking her knuckles.

  She and Skye were dressed in full Eee Cee shrouds, their faces heavily made up in white foundation and thick black eyeliner. Their identities completely obscured.

  “Not you two.” Philippe laughed and lifted them both into the air, carrying them inside to his room.

  Skye giggled, and Sal cracked a smile. Philippe put them down gently.

  “Like what I’ve done to the place?”

  Sal looked around the empty room. Every item of furniture was boxed up in containers.

  “Going somewhere?” she asked sitting on a box.

  “Moving,” Philippe said.

  “Where?” Skye asked.

  “Far.”

  “When?” Sal asked.

  “Tomorrow.” Philippe said. His one-word answers indicating that this was not something he wanted to talk about.

  “Kid wanted you to meet her tomorrow,” Skye said, “she knows it's a big ask, but she said she only needed one of the crew to meet her to complete the mission.”