Second generation, p.21
Second Generation, page 21
Alyona shook her head again.
They walked through smothering rain and gloom until they saw figures silhouetted against the growing light, standing around the entrance to the bunker.
“Hey!” called Leo. “We’ve come for our friends. The other Martians.”
The figures approached with spears levelled.
Leo recognised one of them. “Hi, Judi. Didn’t think you’d be here.”
“Why not?” she asked sharply. “I want answers like everyone else.”
“I want out of rain,” grumbled Alyona.
“Alyona!” exclaimed Judi, looking at her and the Martians with their ominous wired poles. “What are they doing to you?”
“Make me wet,” Alyona grumbled. “Longer you stand at lock door, more wet I get. Go home.”
Leo could hear banging coming from the bottom of the stair shaft.
“I don’t trust the Martians,” said Judi, “they’re siding with the fish-people.”
“They’re not fish-people,” said Leo, putting his taser pole down on the ground, “They’re people. They have names, Timaeus, Hedistē, Helen, Troy.”
“You talked to them?” asked Judi, shocked.
“They seem harmless to me. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Perhaps you all got off to a bad start,” he said echoing Rossier’s words. Truth or half truth, he wondered.
“Then why are they hiding in that bunker, with your friends?”
“Probably all as afraid as you are. Let’s put the weapons down, shall we?” Leo gestured for the others to put down their tasers.
Judi looked between the Martians and her friends. “You, me and Alyona,” she pointed at the three of them in turn. “The three of us go down the stairs and you call for your… people,” the fish was silent, “get them to come out and talk.”
“Sounds like a plan,” agreed Leo, looking at Alyona.
“It dry inside,” shrugged Alyona.
The villagers with spears stepped aside. Leo and Alyona followed Judi into the lobby between the rocks. The banging was louder, ringing off the locked metal door below.
Alyona peered down the winding stair, “You want me go down this?”
“Come with me,” beckoned Judi. “I’ll hold your hand.”
“Ay, ay, ay.”
Leo couldn’t help smiling. Alyona certainly helped diffuse the tension. He hoped it would work with the ‘hotheads’ below. He offered to go first. “I’ll catch you if you slip,” he said.
The banging grew louder. The bunker was under siege.
As they neared the bottom of the stair, Judi called out, “HEY! STOP!”
The hammering gave way to tense silence.
“We have one of the Martians here,” said Judi. “Says he’ll call them …people out to talk.”
“The fish-people?” asked Innik.
“Don’t trust them,” said Hanta.
“They’re just as scared as you are,” said Leo. “Please, let me try.”
Hanta and the others still gripped their clubs and spears, uneasy.
“Let him,” grumbled Alyona. “I fed up, want sleep.”
“He says they have names,” said Judi. “Says they can talk to us.”
“Please,” urged Leo.
Hanta put his arms out and stood back, gesturing to make way for him.
Leo stepped forward, nervous, afraid of what might happen next.
Subterranean bunker, Aleutian Peninsula, Earth – Demetria Philippou
The banging stopped.
Demetria stared along the dim blue corridor, to the metal door that separated her from the outside world.
“It appears one of your Martian friends are here,” said Noah.
A distorted voice carried across the speaker beside the droid, “Hello. Can you hear me?” It was Leo. Noah had opened the comms to the other side of the door.
“Dad?” called Demetria.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. Glad you came.”
There was a pause. “Thanks,” he muttered. “Georgia and the others are at the top of the stairs. I’ve asked the people from the village to put their weapons down. If someone would open the door, we’ll talk.”
“Please,” Demetria turned to Rossier. “Open the door. This can’t go on.”
Rossier looked at Noah and waited.
Demetria turned slowly to the avatar droid, “It’s you. You keep the door, don’t you. It isn’t Rossier’s decision at all.”
“We discuss the best course of action,” said the AI impassively.
“And then you do what you want,” added Demetria.
“I do what is best.”
“For whom?”
“For the future of humanity.”
“You don’t get to decide which humans survive and which get shut out.”
“Actually, I do. It is core to my programming and mission responsibilities.”
There was a spark from the doorway and the sound of the manual wheel lock spinning. Everyone turned to see Chen with his tool kit. “Actually, I just decided for you,” he said, waving his pliers.
“No!” protested Noah.
The door swung open, and Leo stepped in. Judi, Alyona, Hanta, Innik, Mishka, Ilya and Grigoriy followed. The villagers stared; wide eyes bathed in dim blue light.
Hanta pointed at the doctor, “Who are you?”
“I am Doctor Leonie Rossier.” The avatar stepped into view beside her. Hanta and his friends baulked. “This is Noah.”
“What are you?” Hanta demanded, pointing at Noah.
“I am the droid avatar for the artificial intelligence that guards this site.”
“What the fuck? I thought the fish-people lived down here.”
“We prefer Homo Amphibius,” whispered Timaeus, stepping into the chamber with Hedistē. He offered his hand, “I believe there has been a misunderstanding between us.”
Hanta and Innik backed away.
“Please, I don’t believe they mean you harm,” encouraged Leo.
“You never mentioned doctors or droids,” said Hanta, balling his fists. “What’s going on down here? Why have we never seen you,” he pointed at Rossier. “Why did you shut us out?”
“We were protecting Timaeus, Hedistē and their children,” said Noah.
Mishka squirmed her way beside her father, an improvised dagger in her hand. She pointed it at Timaeus, “You! You stole my baby.”
“I did no such thing,” husked Timaeus, wide eyed, backing off.
“It might have been Plato or Aristion,” suggested Demetria, then regretted opening her mouth.
The villagers stared at her then back at Timaeus. “How many of these… things are there?” asked Hanta, horrified.
“They have names! They’re people like you and me,” defended Demetria.
“They’re all fish-people,” said Judi with contempt.
“That’s like saying all your people are the same. That all Martians think and act alike,” argued Demetria. “We don’t.”
“They’re abominations!” spat Hanta.
“They are my children!” cried Rossier, hoarse.
“They skulk around our forest at night like feral kids,” accused Innik.
“Doesn’t mean her children act the same, or even like each other,” said Demetria. Then she turned to Leo, “You only started talking to your brother, Hal again after his find at the North Pole. And you still barely say anything to poor Lena.”
Leo stumbled back as if Demetria had slapped him.
“Sorry,” said Demetria, seeing how much she had hurt him. “I was just trying to say families don’t always get along. Doesn’t matter who the family is, you have to work at it.”
Leo nodded, as if reluctantly acknowledging her point.
Judi and Hanta looked quizzically between Leo and Demetria.
Alyona sat down on the doctor’s chair with a heavy sigh, “Ay, ay, ay. This comfy. Dry. I stay here.”
Rossier raised her eyebrows but didn’t object.
“Tell me,” said Judi. “What. The hell. Is going on?”
Demetria looked between Noah and the doctor, “From what our hosts were saying, I’m guessing Noah has been shutting you out. With or without Doctor Rossier’s consent. I don’t know what happened to Mishka’s child, but I don’t believe Timaeus and his family had anything to do with it.”
“Maybe Noah, can tell us?” mused Leo.
The sculpted face plate of the avatar regarded Leo as if he were bug-ridden software that needed to be re-written.
“I wouldn’t trust any of them,” said Judi, then paused. “Though I’m no judge of droids or fish-people…”
“Homo Amphibians,” insisted Demetria.
“What are they?” asked Judi, pointing at Timaeus and Hedistē. “They can’t possibly be children of any human being.”
“I am a genetic scientist,” rasped Rossier through gritted teeth. “I have been adapting our species to the sea.”
“…Why?”
“Because of the abundance of food that remains there. Because it is safe from storms and acid rains. Timaeus, Hedistē and their children represent the future of life on Earth. I have equipped them to suit their environment, and they suit it perfectly.”
“How do you even do that?” persisted Judi.
Demetria’s face dropped. It was such an obvious question. One she was sure she would have asked soon, but until now she had been blinded by the stunning achievements and the strangeness of the bunker. She looked again at the walls lined with cabinets, each with little glass windows. She walked over to one and pulled it out.
“NO!” protested Rossier, her breath rattling in her throat.
The drawer slid smoothly towards Demetria. Much longer than she expected, as if made for bodies in a mortuary. The drawer contained a glass-topped casket and something floated in a liquid within. There was a faint whiff of formaldehyde as she stared at the familiar object.
Demetria baulked.
Leo and Judi stared over her shoulder in stunned silence.
It was a perfectly preserved human foetus, but straight away, Demetria noticed differences. It was darker. The chest disproportionately big. She peered through the little window of the next cabinet then drew that out.
“Please, stop!” begged Rossier, between coughing fits. “This is my laboratory, show some respect!”
The second drawer contained another foetus. Much bigger, almost at term. Demetria could see the distorted barrel of a chest clearly. She could even see webs between the tiny fingers and toes. She stepped back and looked around the lab. There were hundreds, no, thousands of cabinets.
“Oh God,” she whispered. “The way you do it is by trial and error. Mostly… error.”
“I thought I’d endured the worst of humankind in that hellish bunker,” scowled Judi. “But this is worse. Where did all these foetuses come from?” asked Judi. Her face darkened as she turned to Rossier, “Did you steal them?”
Rossier shook her head and backed up next to Noah, who put his arm around her.
Hanta peered at the forlorn contents of the glass topped casket and balled his fists, growling. Mishka clasped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide with horror.
Demetria ran to Rossier taking her hand, “Please, tell me you didn’t steal these foetuses, Doctor Rossier.”
The doctor shook her head, eyes wide, “No. No, I did no such thing!”
There was a distant scream from the top of the winding stair.
Judi called, “What’s happening?”
Scuffling and crackles of electric discharge echoed down the stairwell and a voice called after, “Fish-people!”
“This is a trap!” accused Hanta, “Get your weapons.”
“NO!” cried Leo.
18
Guardians
Subterranean bunker, Aleutian Peninsula, Earth – Leo Meier
Hanta plunged down the corridor followed by Innik and the others in search of their clubs and spears. Judi stumbled out of their way.
Rossier, Timaeus and Hedistē were running for the tunnel that led to the pool chamber. Before Leo could understand what was happening, Noah had grabbed Demetria and dragged her after them.
“DEMETRIA!” yelled Leo
“DAD!” she cried, squirming against the unexpected power of the droid’s bionics.
Chen ran ahead of Hanta’s angry mob with a taser in his hand. Noah pushed Demetria through the door and gripped the rim to pull it shut. Chen thrust the pole into the vanishing gap where it jammed in a shower of sparks. The door rebounded off the pole, swinging wide to reveal the droid limping away, its leg smoking from the taser, yet still gripping Demetria firmly by her arms.
Chen ran after them down the tunnel, dim blue lights flickering off the worn concrete. Rossier and her children flung themselves through the pool room door. Noah hurled Demetria after them so she fell and rolled across the hard floor.
“Negotiate,” Noah instructed, then turned.
Chen rammed the taser into the droid’s midriff. Another explosion of sparks lit the narrow tunnel and shadows danced across its dusty soffit. Noah fell back against the closing door with a reverberating clang.
Leo skidded to a stop beside Chen, staring at the prone droid. A wisp of smoke curled from under its carapace. It lay inert.
“They have her,” said Chen. “I couldn’t stop it in time.”
Hanta and the others crammed beside them to start hammering again.
“STOP!” commanded Leo, grabbing Chen’s taser and brandishing at Hanta. “Give Chen some space and time, he might be able to open this door too,” he looked back at Chen, seeking his agreement.
Chen nodded.
Judi pushed her way to the front, “What the hell is that doctor up to?” she demanded.
Leo put his palm out, lowering the taser, “That’s what we were trying to work out.”
“How do we know you’re not a part of all this?” asked Hanta.
“Because they took my daughter as a hostage.”
Hanta narrowed his eyes at Leo then grunted a reluctant acknowledgement.
“Why?” asked Judi.
“I think the AI was looking for a way to protect Rossier and her children, someone to bargain with,” said Leo. “I think they were scared, after you reacted to the… to what you found in the lab.”
“It’s abhorrent!”
Leo nodded, “It’s another piece of a tragic mystery. We cannot know what plans were put in place as Earth was facing Goliath. It’s easy to lash out at those we think are villains. My mother thought the colony leader on Mars was a villain. Turned out he was trying to save Earth.”
Judi and Hanta stared at Leo, confusion in their eyes.
“Doctor Rossier thought she was all that was left of humanity,” continued Leo. “She thought she was trying to restart it. I don’t think what she or the AI have done is right. They’re no heroes, but…”
“No heroes,” repeated Judi. “That much is right.”
“… but we can’t just blame Timaeus and his family for everything. They’re trying to survive just like you.”
Subterranean bunker, Aleutian Peninsula, Earth – Demetria Philippou
Demetria pushed herself up on her raw elbows, grimacing. She felt sick.
“Not my idea,” Rossier wheezed, badly out of breath from the run. She shook her head, “Not my idea to take you.”
“What about those foetuses?” Demetria asked. “All those lives aborted. You seemed pretty quick to claim Timaeus and Hedistē here as your children, so surely that’s your idea.”
Rossier stumbled back, looking between Demetria and her proteges, “It’s not like that. Really.”
“Do Timaeus and Hedistē know?” asked Demetria.
They looked confused, shaking their heads.
“The Ark,” said Rossier, hesitating. “Many… resources were gathered and stored there.”
“What do you mean, resources?” asked Timaeus.
“Human eggs and sperm. Foetuses. An artificial womb. They were specifically gathered for restarting humanity.”
“Except you chose to tamper with them,” accused Demetria.
“I chose to improve them,” argued Rossier, defiantly. “A few of us, very few, were told about Goliath. We were given a great responsibility, to restart the species.” She put her hand to her mouth to stifle a coughing fit. “Enough resource for me to experiment. To perfect. I swear I took nothing from the survivors in the village. I would never harm their children.”
“Someone did,” asserted Demetria.
“Not us,” whispered Timaeus, holding her eye.
Demetria nodded. She wanted to believe him. “Plato? Aristion?”
“They may be wilful,” he said, “But I doubt them capable of abduction. Or murder.”
“Noah?”
“No,” came a familiar voice from a speaker beside the door.
They all stared at it.
“My avatar may be incapacitated, but it is no more to me than losing a limb. I continue to function. I know Plato and Aristion visited the village in secret, but I do not know what happened there. Our operation here is self contained. I have been endeavouring to keep it that way. Now there are angry people on the other side of this door. They are unlikely to listen to reason. The Martian called Chen is breaking the lock for them. You must escape to the Ark. Now.”
“To the Ark?” asked Demetria.
“Come,” beckoned Timaeus, “we will take you there.” He pointed to the pool.
Rossier shrank back, shaking her head and coughing.
“They are almost through,” urged the AI, “Leave now!”
“Come on!” Timaeus grabbed Rossier by the hand and pulled her to the pool edge. Hedistē took Demetria, diving straight in.
It took a few moments for Demetria’s eyes to adjust to the gloom. First she saw Hedistē’s powerful legs moving sinuously up and down, propelling them through the water. Then she saw dim shapes behind. Probably Timaeus and Rossier. They appeared to be moving slowly. Erratically.
Light seeped down the rocky face of the island from above. It must be near morning, she thought. Had the storm passed? Would the clouds be clearing. She felt her lungs straining and tugged at Hedistē’s arm. She nodded and turned in towards the underwater cave they had used before. Just as Demetria was starting to be concerned, they broke the surface of the water. She gasped deep breaths from the blackness.
