Nihala

by Scott Burdick

  “You are in violation of the Genetic Purity Act,” a commanding voice boomed from the lead drone. “Surrender at once!”

  Ganesh continued walking.

  The front of the larger drone glowed red. Ganesh’s hand opened, revealing the fission bomb.

  Please, Lord, if you exist, give me a sign. Kayla clasped her hands in prayer.

  Ganesh’s finger moved to a button at the center of the glowing disc.

  She closed her eyes and deep furrows of concentration creased her forehead. “Please, Lord, I’m begging you.” A rush of warmth suffused her body.

  The voice of the drone echoed off the walls. “Drop the weapon or we will—”

  Kayla’s mind entered the drones. In an instant, she identified the power source, the key.

  Ganesh’s finger reached the button …

  Both drones went dark and fell to the floor with a dull clang.

  The giant stood motionless for several heartbeats, his finger remaining atop the button.

  When Kayla joined him, he pulled his finger slowly away from the button and replaced the safety cover.

  “That was … unexpected,” he said. “Did you see something that might explain—”

  “Yes,” Kayla said. “I prayed to God, and he answered.”

  Ganesh stood silent for a long moment. “Are you being serious, my dear?”

  “I’ve never been more serious. I prayed harder than I ever have, and He sent a miracle. He guided me into the machines and shut them off.”

  Ganesh sagged. “Then I didn’t save you after all.”

  “Two gods saved me together!”

  “What a lovely thought.” Ganesh laughed, until his eyes fell on the burning wreck of his flying machine.

  “Maybe we should go, in case more arrive?” Kayla said.

  “Right!” Ganesh touched a crystal around his neck, and it blazed to life, illuminating everything within a twenty-yard cone. He led the way into the undercity, and Kayla followed.

  “The city stretches across the entire Earth,” Ganesh said, acting the tour guide once again. “One could ride a train around the globe in a matter of hours.”

  Ganesh led them through the maze of streets, stairways, and passages without hesitation.

  “You must spend a lot of time here,” she said.

  “Not really. I’m accessing the building schematics in the Old Earth Archives. They are quite detailed.”

  “Archives from where?”

  Ganesh tapped his skull. “Neural Implant—or Mind-Link, as most call it. Ohg installed it for me centuries ago. That’s how Ohg controls the body you saw him using with the Monads.”

  “But this is your real body?”

  His great stomach vibrated with his laugh. “I know it’s hard to believe, but, yes, this is the real me!”

  Kayla’s follow-up question died on her lips as they entered an enormous underground stadium stretching a mile across and rising a quarter of a mile high to a domed peak. Here and there the roof had fallen away. Shafts of sunlight extended downward like magical columns of illumination.

  “This is where teams of mind-athletes played Filador. Hundreds of thousands of such stadiums exist across the planet. They represent the physical world’s precursor to Ixtalia’s Filadrux of today.”

  “What’s a mind-athlete?” she asked.

  “Just what it sounds like. An athletics purely of the mind. No one had any idea what body they’d be assigned or what obstacles they’d face until the moment before the match.”

  “But how … Isn’t that unfair?”

  “That’s the fun of it.” His eyes blazed with the fervor of a true fan. “Each team remained equally in the dark until assigned an identical combination of bodies moments before the contest. Creating a challenge of both strategy and teamwork.”

  “I don’t understand …”

  They descended to the vast stadium floor. Ganesh gazed about with face aglow. “Of course, Ixtalia’s Filadrux is even more creative, what with the freedom to rewrite the underlying laws of physics. Ohg is an absolute master of the game, though he would be banned from competition if anyone got a glimpse of his DNA.” Ganesh paused at her blank stare. He smacked his forehead with one of his hands. “I’m sorry. I forgot you’re—”

  “From Potemia,” she said. “That’s becoming my motto.”

  The hum of an approaching drone caused her to stiffen. One of the dark tunnels feeding into the stadium glowed, and the sound intensified.

  “Hurry!” Ganesh ran to the side of the stadium and hid behind some debris.

  Kayla crouched beside him and peered through a gap. The drone flashed into the stadium and then hovered in place, a beam of light scanning the vast space.

  “A Seeker,” Ganesh whispered.

  Unlike the previous drones, spindly metal arms hung off its core like tentacles. The circle of its spotlight approached their hiding place, and Kayla closed her eyes.

  The beam paused on the pile of rubble hiding them, its brightness penetrating her eyelids. Please, God, make us invisible.

  After a moment, the light moved on, and Kayla opened her eyes. The drone flew across the stadium and into another tunnel. The sound and light faded away. Ganesh let out a great sigh and led her through a trapdoor in the stadium’s floor. They descended a series of passageways connected to the city’s sewer system. It had long ago dried out.

  “That was close,” Ganesh said. “We better hurry before it backtracks.”

  “What was that thing?”

  “Basically, a robot, though a very old one.” Ganesh scratched his belly. “We would have had no chance against a modern Seeker Drone, but I still don’t understand how it could have missed us. Even those old models had heat sensors.”

  A second answered prayer?

  “Ganesh, how did you—I mean—where did you …?”

  “Who made me and why?”

  Kayla nodded. I hope I haven’t offended him.

  “I don’t mind telling you,” Ganesh said, but lapsed into silence.

  For a long moment, only the echoes of their footsteps violated the stillness.

  “India,” Ganesh said with a sigh of longing. “The smell of jasmine, of curry and incense. Of flowing silks, gurus, and the colors of the rainbow stitched into every heart that has ever gazed up the sacred Ganges. It gave birth to me, and it is where my soul will forever live.”

  “It sounds wonderful.”

  “It was …” Ganesh gazed into the darkness without seeing, lost in his visions of the past. “By the mid-twenty-first century, India had ascended to one of the leading scientific centers of the world. Researchers flocked to its advanced labs from across the globe, fleeing the ultra-conservative laws in the United States and elsewhere that restricted genetic research.”

  Kayla nodded. He’s describing exactly what the founder predicted would happen.

  “The educated Indian elite and genetic corporations prospered even while the vast underclass of destitute Indians fueled rampant crime and rioting mobs.

  His face grew troubled, haunted almost, and he stopped walking. “I’ve never understood how someone can feel content with vast riches while people starve just a few miles away. Or even a thousand miles away, for that matter. Do you know the answer to this?”

  “I honestly don’t,” Kayla said.

  Ganesh resumed walking. “Rather than sharing their wealth, the new Brahmins of Science sought protection through technology. And so this technological aristocracy created creatures like me to serve as genetically engineered protectors.”

  “You’re a bodyguard?”

  “And a companion,” Ganesh said. “Creating me in the form of Lord Ganesha seemed natural since the real god had guarded the entrance to the bathing chamber of his mother, the Goddess Parvati. Because her husband, the Lord Shiva, had been gone so many years, he remained unaware of the existence of his son. The great Lord returned and found the boy barring the way to his wife’s bath, and cut off Ganesha’s head in a fit of
rage. When the weeping Parvati enlightened Shiva as to the identity of the slain boy, he ordered his guards to remove the head of the first living being they encountered, which happened to be an elephant. With this, he restored Ganesha’s life and put him in charge of his personal troops.”

  “But that’s a bizarre myth,” Kayla said. “People can’t believe that actually happened, can they?”

  “Am I not proof that such a thing is possible?”

  “That’s science, not a true miracle like bringing someone back to life.”

  “Are you saying that God cannot do what man has?”

  Kayla frowned. “I guess He could do anything …”

  “The faithful in India believed the story of Lord Ganesha’s resurrection as deeply as other people do the story of a man named Jesus who is said to have risen from the dead.”

  “But that’s different,” Kayla said. “There’s tons of historical records of Jesus rising from the dead.”

  “Ah, I see.” A smile played across Ganesh’s lips. “And have you seen these records yourself?”

  “Well, no, but …” After an awkward silence, Kayla touched his wrist. “I didn’t mean any offense.”

  Ganesh smiled and scratched a shoulder with a tusk. “None taken, my dear.”

  “Who did you end up guarding?” Kayla asked.

  “My creators made me as a prototype of what they hoped would someday be a popular production model. The company’s founder had so much confidence in my revolutionary instinct modifications that he assigned me to his six-year-old son, Sangi.”

  His elephant lids half closed, and he drew in a breath. “I can still smell the incense and offerings of flowers and food at the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival. I led the procession of Ganapatyas, with little Sangi proudly riding on my shoulders. Had anyone tried harming us, a vengeful mob would have torn them apart.”

  Ganesh sighed.

  “Those were times of hope, especially with the promise of immortality on the horizon. Due to the fear of side effects, Gene-Freaks served as the ideal test subjects for the EL Pill, short for Eternal Life.”

  “They used you to experiment on?” Kayla said. “That seems completely unethical.”

  “Humans considered us products.” Ganesh shrugged. “It also made economic sense to protect one’s property and investment from depreciation.”

  “So you and Ohg are immortal?”

  “Gene-Freaks don’t age, but we can be killed like anyone else, so we’re not really immortal.”

  They entered one of the smaller side tunnels, and claustrophobia constricted her chest for the first time.

  “Sangi was lucky to have you as a protector,” Kayla said.

  The Hindu god lowered his head, and all four of his shoulders slumped. “Five years I served as friend and protector to Sangi, and they are still the happiest years of my life. It shocked me when the first wild-eyed zealot called me an abomination. It was at the harvest festival of Makar Sankranti, which marks the season of the sun’s return journey to the north.”

  Ganesh stopped walking, all four hands extending outward like a double crucifixion. “The man hurled insults and even a few stones, saying my kind would destroy all of humanity. It was my first encounter with the Neo-Luddites.”

  Kayla’s heart jolted. The Founder of Potemia had led the Neo-Luddites.

  “Before I could say a word, the crowd came to our defense, driving the radical off with stones. But each time it happened, fewer people defended us, until the day arrived when the mob joined the condemnation.”

  His hands fell to his sides, and he resumed walking through the ever-narrowing tunnel. “Gene-Freaks became the one technology that everyone agreed had gone too far. Soon I couldn’t leave the house without a barrage of rocks and curses following me. Rather than shielding my young charge from danger, I attracted it like a lodestone.”

  Kayla took his hand in hers. Poor Ganesh. I know what it’s like to be an outcast.

  “Sangi sensed the change in his parents and showed me the proof that I’d soon be sent away.”

  “But maybe you interpreted it wrong. Maybe they intended setting you free?”

  “Freeing a Gene-Freak was illegal,” Ganesh said. “Sending me away was a polite way of saying I would be killed, the prototype having proved itself unpopular with the public and of no further use.”

  “Whatever the law said, I think it’s a horrible thing to do,” Kayla said.

  “I would have allowed them to kill me, except that Sangi begged me to flee. I did so to spare him the devastation my death would have caused him.”

  The tunnel merged into a natural cavern that must have once been an underground river. Here and there, it branched, but Ganesh didn’t hesitate as he led them through the organic maze.

  “How did you survive on your own?”

  “I wandered the ever-expanding cities of India, always traveling by night, keeping to the shadows. I foraged in the trash heaps alongside cows and pigs, since my stomach was that of a man, rather than an elephant. Occasionally, religious Hindus mistook me for the real God Ganesha and gave me food. Despite everything, I still believe in the essential goodness of humans.”

  He scratched the base of his voluminous left ear. “Eventually, a brothel in Bangladesh employed me as a bouncer. I heard rumors of wars and great upheavals in society, but I ignored it all.”

  Ganesh came to a stop next to an opening in the main cavern’s wall. “That’s strange,” he said, peering into it with a frown. “The archives don’t show this tunnel.”

  Peeking out of Kayla’s pocket, Puck chattered and sniffed the air in an agitated manner.

  “Maybe it formed naturally?”

  “You can see that the stone has been scraped away. It almost looks like … teeth-marks.” Ganesh half-stepped inside. “Did you see that? Like a shadow retreating.”

  The hairs on the back of Kayla’s neck rose.

  “You promised Ohg no detours,” she said.

  Ganesh finally shrugged and continued on his original course. Kayla let out her breath and followed him.

  “Where was I?” Ganesh asked, rubbing his temple with his trunk.

  “The … the brothel.”

  “That’s right! Most of the girls came from poor families who sold their daughters to pay for food or the education of a prized son. But the higher-priced clients preferred Gene-Freaks, both male and female varieties. I guarded one girl in particular—the most expensive prostitute in the entire brothel and accounting for eighty percent of profits.”

  “How was she different than a normal woman?”

  “She had been created with all the physical attributes men desire, of course, but the one thing that drives a man truly wild is a woman’s genuine desire for him in return. It is something that cannot be faked. It turned Fatima into something that men couldn’t live without once they’d had her. Some lost entire fortunes to her and committed suicide when they could no longer feed their addiction.”

  “Did she try to seduce you?” Kayla asked.

  “I was genetically engineered without a reproductive impulse. That’s why they hired me as Fatima’s protector in the first place. Who else could be trusted?” Ganesh shook his head. “As a consequence, Fatima’s life had been lonely, and she became like a sister to me.”

  Kayla’s insides twisted as she pictured Elias leering at her. “How is it possible to desire a man who repulses you? It seems a psychological impossibility.”

  “The scientists at Monsanto-Gen altered Fatima’s genes so that the slightest hint of desire in a man’s eyes—any man—flipped a switch in her brain. In that instant, her need to mate and please him in any way necessary became a compulsion akin to some animals who are driven to mate even to the point of death.”

  “That’s monstrous!”

  “Which is how most humans feel about us even today.”

  “I didn’t mean you, Ganesh.”

  “I know,” he said with a forgiving smile. “But as scientists pushed the boundar
ies of genetic engineering, fear and resentment grew. What wife or husband could compete with a genetically engineered mistress, nanny, or bodyguard?

  The tunnel narrowed to the point that Ganesh bent nearly double.

  I hope he knows where he’s going.

  Ganesh lowered his head as he trudged forward, and an oversized tear spatted against the floor. “The Neo-Luddites eventually targeted my creator because of his work in genetic engineering. They fire-bombed his house, with Sangi and the rest of the family inside.”

  Ganesh stopped and squeezed his eyes closed.

  “I’m so sorry.” Kayla placed a hand on his wrist. So that’s what you seek redemption for.

  He shook his head with a great flap of his ears and continued walking. “The final straw came when researchers unlocked the secret to enlarging the human brain. If Pures increased their own offspring’s intelligence, it would render the current generation obsolete.” Ganesh sighed. “The Genetic Purification Laws passed on April 7th, 2060. The world-wide agreement outlawed genetic modifications of any kind, and pronounced a recall of all Gene-Freaks currently in circulation.

  “Special government units purged tens of millions of us within weeks. Even religious leaders proclaimed us abominations, saying we had no souls since we weren’t created by God. The resultant genocide dwarfed all others.”

  “You must have escaped, since you’re here now.”

  “Fatima and I had been shackled in a police transport when one of the officers struck her across the face with particular cruelty, drawing the blood that marked her only offense.”

  The enormous muscles of his arms tensed and stood out like the knots of an oak tree. What a terror he must seem to ordinary men when angered.

  “I broke free of my chains and left the transport in ruins, but killed no one. The next months turned desperate as we eluded the Purification Squads scouring the planet.”

  Ganesh suddenly opened his cavernous mouth and yawned. “Fatima used her talents to obtain food and money as we smuggled ourselves into China.”

  Kayla yawned as well. “Why don’t we rest here a few moments?” she said, and they sat with their backs to the wall.

  “The Neo-Luddite Plague swept the globe like a divine curse,” Ganesh said softly. “Thousands of bloated bodies choked every river, and the cries of agony …” Ganesh wrapped all four of his arms around his chest and shivered. “We shunned people until the greatest scientist of the time, Reinhold Watts, developed a cure. Fatima seduced one of the government health workers and obtained several doses for us. By then, society had collapsed, and no one bothered hunting Gene-Freaks any longer. We wandered north through a world transformed.”