The Ascension Myth Box Set

by Ell Leigh Clark

  Ventus Research Facility, downtown Spire

  The meeting room hummed with artificial lights, and artificial air. Molly and Paige sat patiently, waiting for the client to arrive.

  Ventus Research Facility was a little intimidating, Molly realized now she was here. The blue lighting, the polished floors and glass meeting rooms, the perfectly manicured receptionists, and indoor plants; she half expected the scientists to show up in tailored suits or something. As yet, though, they were a no-show.

  “Wish I’d managed to get some more sleep on that trip,” Paige grumbled, fidgeting in her seat. “How many hours were we traveling for?”

  Molly was slumped back in her chair, and shuffled to sit up a little more. “I think the total flight time is twenty-something hours.” She tapped a finger on the armrest. “It’s Crash I feel sorry for. He did most of the flight monitoring.”

  Paige pulled one leg up, resting her heel on the edge of the seat. “Yeah. He seems happy, though.” She looked towards the door. “Do you ever get the feeling he’s more antsy when he’s on base?” She started whispering, like someone might overhear her talking about her teammate.

  “Honestly, I hadn’t noticed.” Molly’s eyes drifted off, as she thought back to her experience of him. “He always seems so cool and collected.”

  Paige grinned. “Ah!” she said, her eyes now lit up. “So you haven’t been watching him when he works out…”

  “But you have, by the sounds of it?” Molly looked at her sideways, a slight smile at the corner of her lips.

  “Can’t blame a girl,” Paige said laughing. “But yeah, he’s been getting more and more intense in his workouts. I think his flying is his outlet. You know, his happy place. Or safety valve.”

  Molly made a mental note to be aware of that. “That would make sense,” she mused. She might even mention it to Joel, to see what they could do about making sure he didn’t go stir crazy on the asteroid.

  It’s a good point.

  What is?

  Well not everyone seems to be as… self-contained as you are.

  What do you mean?

  Well, give you a project and a holo and you don’t move for hours at a stretch. But the others, they sit for maybe an hour and then have a conversation with someone, or change what they do.

  Of course, you’re monitoring them.

  Yes, and a good job too, or else I’d think that all sentient beings behave like you. You’re definitely proving to be on the extremes of the bell-curve in many ways.

  Molly decided it was best not to respond to Oz’s last comment. The last thing she needed now was the distraction.

  Paige started swinging her foot. Molly checked her holo to see how long they had been waiting.

  Just then, there was movement in the reception area, and two figures started wending their way through the corridors to the meeting room to join them. As they approached, Molly could make out that they were both male. Both Estarian.

  And both looked very fatigued and stressed.

  The door swung open, and they bundled in one after another.

  “Greetings of the day upon you,” said the slightly older man. “I’m Dr. Carl Knotts. We’ve been in communication. This is Dr. Eugene Philips, who has been working on the project since before the vials were stolen.” The two shook hands with both the ladies and invited them to come into a meeting room next door to sit down.

  “May I offer you some mocha?” Dr. Knotts looked at each of them in turn as they entered the room.

  “No, no thank you. We had plenty on the trip over here.” Molly said, noticing that Paige had also waved ‘no thank you’.

  “Oh, you flew, then?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Molly left it at that. She didn’t want them knowing too much about their situation needlessly.

  “Okay. Right then,” Knotts started gathering his thoughts as the two men sat. “As you can imagine, the situation here is pretty fraught. We’ve had teams working on this around the clock. I’ve just sent a number of them home, since they were operating on no sleep for a day and a half now, and mistakes were being made.” He breathed in through his teeth. “We’re hoping that you are able to help.”

  Molly nodded. “I understand that the toxin was developed using the same sequencing method I used when I proved that the Yultok plant could be genetically modified to make the nectar into a toxin. Is that correct?”

  Eugene, despite his fatigue and the immediate danger, perked up when she mentioned the research. “Yes! Yes. And I must say, your paper is quite famous around here. We’re thrilled that you could work on this with us…” He caught himself, and noticed the concerned look on his boss’s face. “Of… of course,” he stammered, correcting himself, “we wish it were under better circumstances.”

  Molly nodded politely. “So you followed the exact method?”

  “Yes,” Eugene continued. “For the most part, anyway. Equipment has moved on somewhat since you published that paper, and we took advantage of newer technology. But more importantly, once we saw that it worked for one sequence, we experimented with switching pieces of the code around… just to see what happened.”

  Molly’s face dropped, but she remained quiet.

  Both Knotts and Philips noticed, and looked at each other.

  “What?” Knotts asked eventually. “There’s something wrong?”

  Molly took a breath, and leaned forward on the table. “You could say that.”

  Paige felt a knot in her stomach. She sensed that this was more serious.

  “Do you know which sequence could be out there?” Molly asked.

  “Erm.” Knotts and Eugene exchanged glances again.

  Molly waited. If they wanted her to fix it, they were going to have to tell her.

  There were mutterings, and “um”s and “ah”s. And then a bunch of non-committal statements.

  Finally Molly broke. “Look. I’m here to help. But in order for me to save your collective asses, and potentially the population of Spire that you’ve put in grave danger, I need to know what the FUCK is going on!”

  The meeting room fell silent.

  Eugene shifted awkwardly in his chair and avoided eye contact with anyone.

  Finally, Knotts spoke.

  “The strain that got out isn’t out as a result of user error. A number of strains of the toxin were put into one vial, extracted from the secure unit in the lab, and likely stolen. As in, walked out of the doors by one of our scientists. So we have two researchers who have disappeared, and an unknown number of strains of this toxin that could be being used to cause any number of problems.”

  Molly considered what she had heard for a moment. She was in ops mode, though, just as she’d learned from Joel. There was no time for disbelief or judgement. She needed the facts.

  “Multiple strains in one vial?” she confirmed.

  The two scientists nodded.

  “Do we know why?” she asked.

  Both shook their heads.

  “Any ransom demands?”

  Knotts shook his head.

  “You sure?” Her eyes burrowed into him.

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know?” she pressed.

  “I’m the managing director of the facility. I’d be notified.”

  “Not necessarily. Not if someone’s family is in danger. I need you to start digging, and ask around. We need to know if this is the case. It could affect everything. I’ll also get our team onto checking all communications with your staff and decision-makers. If this was walked out of the building, there has to be motive; we find that, we find who has the vial.”

  Already on it.

  Thanks, Oz.

  “Any political considerations? Contracts you’re up for?”

  Knotts shook his head. “We’re just a research facility…”

  Molly raised her eyebrows. “And your funding comes from?”

  He looked flummoxed. “I… I… There are mu
ltiple sources,” he stammered.

  Oz.

  On it.

  Paige had started taking notes.

  Molly could feel Oz pressing on the capacity in her cortex right now.

  Oz, I’m going to need those neurons.

  Out loud she told Knotts, “I’ll also need the names of the two missing scientists. They’re our best lead.”

  Eugene answered that question. “Dr. Ana Grossman and Dr. David Rek.”

  “Thank you,” said Molly, making a mental note.

  “Ana was David’s supervisor. She was the one with access to the samples,” Eugene offered.

  Molly turned to look directly at him. “Okay, and have you documented everything that might be in the vial?” she asked.

  “Yes, and no. I can take you to the lab and show you the lab reports from the last 18 months while this project has been running. But we haven’t figured out what is missing from that, yet.”

  “Okay. Let’s go take a look. We might be able to shortcut that…”

  The four sarkians stood up from the meeting room table and filed out into the labyrinth of corridors to make their way to the lab. Along the way, Dr. Knotts took his leave to try and find out what he could in terms of ransoms.

  He knows more than he’s telling us.

  I don’t doubt it. When I get some operating capacity, I will endeavor to find out what.

  Okay, let’s go look at these lab reports first so we can figure out what we’re dealing with.

  Molly and Paige followed Eugene.

  Ancient Moon Bar, downtown Spire

  Pieter Alexander was excellent on paper. His skills were outstanding, and his experience was wide and varied. But standing in front of Joel wasn’t the person that he had expected to be meeting.

  Pieter didn’t appear to be your average nerd. In fact, if you saw him sitting on a train or in a fancy restaurant in town, you might mistake him for an artistic type. With a large trust fund.

  Though his pseudo-geeky converse pumps were dusty and fashionably “worn,” his immaculate pinstripe suit and crisp white shirt looked like something out of a catalog for the nouveaux riche.

  “How was your trip in?” asked Joel, as he invited the Estarian to sit down at the small table in the bar.

  The place was peaceful, but there were enough people around talking, drinking, and eating for them to remain relatively anonymous.

  “Yeah, good. Really good, thanks. How was yours?” Pieter leaned forward, one arm at an angle on the table, and used the other hand to sweep through his shaggy hairstyle.

  Joel sat more squarely, and pulled up his holo notes. “Good also. Thanks.”

  The waitress appeared at his elbow within seconds, and they ordered some mochas and got straight down to business.

  “Your resume is impressive. With your abilities, you could choose to do anything; how come you’re not working in the city, reeling in the big bucks?” Joel asked him.

  Pieter was unfazed. He barely paused to consider his response. “It’s just not the type of environment I’d be happy in. I’d find it rather dull.” Pieter’s accent was slightly melodic, and light, and he didn’t seem to put much effort into enunciating his words. Joel was trying to place which area it might be from.

  “So tell me a little about what you’ve been doing for work then…” he asked.

  The interview continued for a good hour and a half.

  By the end of it Joel was pretty certain they had a good candidate and that he would fit with the team. There was just one more question Molly had asked him to cover.

  Joel asked the question, just as he had all the others. “Tell me about your gambling problem.”

  Pieter froze. He took a moment to formulate the words. “It’s in the past. But how do you know about that?”

  Joel smiled, a relaxed smile. “It’s okay. It doesn’t preclude you from the job. We know because our hacking kung fu is better than yours. But then, we have a few unfair advantages. One of them being your future boss.” Joel closed his holo notes and put all his attention on Pieter. “What we need to know is how ‘in the past’ the problem is.”

  Pieter swallowed.

  Joel remained casual, but held his gaze. He wasn’t backing down on this one. He needed the truth. The integrity of the team needed the truth.

  Pieter’s eyes had gone from being cool and casual to much more earnest. “Very. I mean. I still owe money. That’s why it would be good to get off-world for a while. But I haven’t placed a bet in years. I’ve just been working to keep making payments. But there’s always pressure… from the wrong kind of people, if you know what I mean.”

  He ran his fingers through his full head of hair again.

  Joel nodded. “Yes, I know exactly the kind of people you mean. I’ve come across those kinds of folks in a few cases I’ve worked.”

  Pieter’s eyes dropped to the table, having spilled everything he had been hoping to not mention.

  “Okay, so cards on the table time…” Joel continued. “We want you because you are talented, and you’re able to work outside the box. We’ve looked into some of the jobs you’ve done, and you’re a creative thinker.”

  He paused, trying to word the next bit right so as not to be misunderstood.

  “The other reason we want you on the team is because you can make a judgment call. You don’t play strictly by the book. And, quite frankly, there are going to be times when we need that.”

  He paused again, making sure that Pieter was taking it all in.

  “Now, when it comes to the team, though, you need to have their backs. If there is even a hint or suggestion that you’ve been creative with the truth, or done anything to harm or take advantage of them, then I personally will come down on you so hard you will wish you were back here on Estaria at the mercy of the gambling sharks.”

  Joel sat back in his chair, his casual air returning. “Do you understand our position?”

  Pieter swallowed again, and nodded. His eyes were suddenly tired, as the anxiety caught up to him and fatigued him.

  “Okay. Great,” said Joel, taking a last swig of his mocha before placing the mug down on the table. He looked up at Pieter. “If you want it, the job is yours.”

  Pieter’s eyes had a distant look behind them. He had looked like he had been listening to Joel, but then when Joel finished speaking, Pieter just kept bobbing his head, processing.

  Joel waited for his response. “Well?”

  Pieter managed to nod more firmly. Then he smiled and nodded again. “Yes, I understand. And I’m in. Please.”

  He sat up a little straighter.

  Joel leaned forward with his arms on the table. “Well, good then,” he said. “We need to leave in a few days. We’re in the middle of a case right now, so we need to remain flexible. How soon can you leave town with us?”

  Pieter’s eyes looked upward as he considered his answer. “Erm,” he paused, his eyes flicking left then right. “Probably about two days. I need to pack some things, and make arrangements at my apartment.”

  Joel tapped the table with his forefingers, in conclusion. “Okay, fine. Go ahead and put those things in place, and let’s stay in close holo contact.” He grinned again. “…So we don’t leave without you!”

  Pieter tried to grin back, uncertain if Joel was pulling his leg or not.

  Chapter 8

  Ventus Research Facility, downtown Spire

  Eugene led Paige and Molly through the automatic double doors and a securi-field, which looked like it had some bio-hazard detection layer to it. “Okay – so, here we are,” he said, walking into the largest open-plan lab Molly had ever seen.

  Paige looked around in awe, as if she’d just arrived on another planet.

  Molly got straight down to what she needed to see. “Okay, so if you can show us the lab reports first…” she suggested, by-passing the usual small talk that Eugene was used to when he gave visitors tours.

&nbs
p; Eugene bowed his head slightly and then signaled for them to follow him. “Of course. Time is of the essence.”

  They passed rows of white benches and equipment, and batches of tests being run in various machines. About halfway through the immense lab, Eugene took them over to a holo portal and stopped. Flicking through the screens, he started pulling up pages and navigating to the intel they needed.

  “It’s all here,” he said, stepping back, opening his palm to the holo and allowing Molly in to navigate the lab reports.

  Molly stepped forward, and started looking at the material. “Thank you,” she acknowledged briefly. “We’re going to need some supplies, and then we’re going to work from a secure location. Can you get me everything we’d need in the way of samples and disposables for the experiments?”

  Eugene looked slightly disappointed. “You mean, you won’t be working from here?” he asked.

  Molly didn’t take her eyes from the data. “No, we need to be elsewhere to do this.”

  Eugene stayed still. “I… I just wanted to ask…”

  Molly glanced over at him briefly. “Uh hm?” she said, waiting for him to spit it out.

  Eugene was wringing his fingers nervously. He glanced around furtively. “Erm, well. It’s Ana and David. Do you think they’re ok?”

  Molly shook her head. “I have no idea. Why do you ask?”

  Eugene leant in a little, and spoke in a low whisper. “Well, I know them. They’re my friends. I’m… I just worry that something awful has happened to them… and I can’t understand why the police aren’t investigating their disappearance. I mean… everyone knows they’re not around. Surely someone must have reported them missing. They have… families.”

  Molly frowned, taking the intel on board. “You make a good point. I don’t have answers right now, but… I’d say, keep your head down and let us do our job. If they’re alive, we’ll get them back.”

  Eugene looked part way satisfied. “Ok. Ok…” He nodded, as if talking himself into believing her. “Let me go and get what you’ll need.”

  He scuttled off.

  Paige started chattering about the lab, but Molly was engrossed.

  Oz, I think we’ve got the detail we need in this set of experiments I’m highlighting. Are you able to download what we need?