by Eliza Green
‘Because Indigenes are using it or because they have it?’
Margaux remained silent, her hands folded on her lap. He could tell from her unwavering attention that she was fascinated.
‘Telepathy is a dormant ability in humans, but it exists. In each person it operates at a specific frequency, like radio waves. My theory is the virus is spreading through those waves. It skipped over Margaux because it couldn’t latch on to her specific frequency, which appears to be much lower than everyone else’s. If Harvey proves humans are not affected, then the virus has to have originated from District Three. You mentioned the Nexus—any organic entity would be prone to a similar attack. Tanya could have passed something on.’
Bill folded his arms. ‘But Tanya didn’t enter the Nexus; Simon did.’
‘Exactly. A Conditioned host with telepathic abilities carried in a diseased mind lacking the same ability and infected the Nexus. Tanya couldn't use telepathy in her own body. But she was able to hijack Simon’s mind to speak through him and to him. If the Nexus responds to telepathy, those frequencies could be how the Indigenes communicate with it. Simon was a foreign mind, and possibly incompatible with it.’
‘Are you sure about this theory, doctor?’
Jameson smiled. ‘At best, it’s a wild guess backed up by limited scientific evidence.’
Bill thought about Greyson’s data recording early tests on brain-to-brain communication. It could prove useful, but getting the data would be risky.
His comms device buzzed in his ear.
‘Excuse me,’ he said, walking out of the lab. ‘Hello?’
‘Bill, it’s Harvey.’
His heart thumped. ‘What’s the news?’
‘Good. So far the tests are negative for the virus. I’m not expecting to find anything different from the rest. I thought you’d like to know.’
Bill released a breath. ‘That’s good news. I’m here with Jameson and he has a theory the virus could be spreading through the Indigenes’ use of telepathy. What do you think?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Any ideas? Can we turn off the ability in the Indigenes, starve the virus somehow?’
‘It might work. A virus needs fuel.’
For the first time in a while, Bill had hope. ‘How soon can you finish up and get here?’
‘Give me another hour. I want to be certain these samples are clean.’
Bill clicked off and returned to the room. An uncomfortable Jameson stood next to Margaux. His arms were folded and his eyes were focused on a spot on the counter. She was focused fully on his face. Bill almost laughed at the awkward exchange.
Jameson perked up, looking relieved he’d returned. ‘Was that Harvey?’
‘Yeah. The samples are clean. We have to assume it’s the Indigenes’ use of telepathy. It’s the only thing separating the species. Harvey will be here in an hour. I need you two to come up with something we can try by the end of the day.’ He stopped by Margaux’s chair and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘What else do you need from her?’
‘A sample of her brain?’
Jameson laughed, but neither Bill nor Margaux found it funny.
‘How about more brain scans instead?’ the former elder offered.
Jameson nodded, his smile dropping away. ‘That would work. We might be able to work out the telepathic frequencies the virus is not attracted to. I recall similar experiments on telepathy being done on Earth.’ Jameson looked at Bill. ‘It would be helpful if you could get me the results from those tests. With the interstellar wave offline, all I have is what tests were carried out here. By the way, it’s not much.’
‘Can’t you just recreate the experiment?’
‘It would take too long, and I assume we don’t have much time.’
No, they didn’t. To transmit Greyson’s files in full would require Bill to reinstate the interstellar wave.
‘I’ll see what I can do. You’ve got Margaux for the next half an hour, then we’re both out of here. Harvey can’t know she was here. Got it?’
Jameson nodded. Bill looked at Margaux. She confirmed with a nod that the doctor would keep his promise.
38
From his car, Bill watched Harvey walk to the front of the hospital. His car was parked in a spot farther back from the entrance and not immediately visible.
‘Just in time,’ he said to Margaux, who was sat beside him.
Jameson had rushed through the last of the tests on her. From his observations, Bill had pegged the doctor to be a curious, but restrained, personality. What he couldn’t risk was the former geneticist who’d been involved in Margaux’s creation finding her there.
The former elder was squinting at the geneticist.
‘He’s a bad man,’ she declared.
Bill just nodded and ordered the car to head home.
They arrived back at the apartment to find Laura sitting at the dining table, frowning at a DPad Ben had brought from the office. He closed the door; Laura didn’t stir. Bill looked at Margaux, who was concentrating on Laura the same way she’d done with Harvey. In that moment, it felt like he was intruding on a private conversation between the pair.
Bill cleared his throat, snapping Laura out of her concentration.
She looked up, wide-eyed. ‘Oh, you’re back. How did it go?’
He caught the strained look in her eyes. He didn’t need extra skills to sense things were still weird between them.
Bill hovered near the table and relayed the findings to her.
‘Telepathy?’ Her gaze flicked to Margaux. ‘But not you?’
Margaux smiled. ‘The doctor seems to think I’m a unique case.’
Bill would agree with that.
Laura blew out a breath. ‘Okay, then what’s next?’
‘Jameson and Harvey are going to focus on the frequency used by telepathy. They think turning it off might kill the virus.’
‘Turn off telepathy, for how long?’ Laura blinked. ‘Don’t the Indigenes need it to connect to the Nexus?’
‘I don’t know, love.’ Her shoulders tightened when his sentiment slipped through his loose lips. ‘Maybe it won’t be for long. Let’s see what they come up with. One piece of good news: Harvey said humans are not infected.’
She released a breath. ‘That is good news.’
‘Thanks for your help with him earlier. Did he behave himself?’
Laura flicked her eyes up to him, then back to the DPad. ‘As well as Harvey can behave.’
Something about her mood felt off. ‘Why, what happened?’
‘Nothing.’ She flashed him an uneasy smile. ‘Let’s concentrate on finding a cure because Serena called and things are bad in the district.’
Bill grappled for the chair, his legs suddenly weak. ‘What’s happened now?’
‘Stephen, Anton and Arianna are sick.’
He dropped into the chair. ‘When, how bad?’
‘This morning. Serena’s monitoring their condition.’
‘And Serena, you? How are you feeling?’
Laura shrugged. ‘I feel fine. Serena doesn’t have any symptoms.’
He turned to Margaux. ‘Could the third generation have the same immunity as you?’
‘It’s possible,’ muttered the former elder. ‘I should go back, now that we know I’m not affected. Stephen will need my help.’
‘I should go back too,’ said Laura.
Bill’s heart pinched at her announcement. It was too soon. There was still work to do.
Bill stood up. ‘I need both of you to stick around until this evening. Margaux, if Jameson needs you again, I’d rather have you here. The cure is the priority now.’ He steadied his nerves. ‘Laura, can you tell Serena what we’ve learned about telepathy and how it might be the conduit for spreading the illness? She should order everyone to stop using it for now.’
Laura nodded and grabbed her DPad. Margaux pulled Laura up from the chair and into the spare bedroom, leaving Bill alone.
Th
e loss of her friendship hurt the most. He’d wanted to discuss Greyson’s files and the risks of opening out the interstellar wave again. But the pair had work to do and Bill had to get used to doing things alone.
He left the apartment, hoping—trusting—the pair would still be there when he returned later.
☼
Bill arrived at the ITF offices and entered the first floor. The place had a quieter feel to it due to not much happening on the Wave. He saw Ben in Laura’s office, looking intensely at the screen. Greyson’s files were just a click away. But before he could get them, he had a decision to make.
He walked over to Julie, who was standing at the shoulder of one of her team. She looked up in surprise, following up with a warm smile.
‘Bill, I haven’t seen you all day—’
‘Can we talk?’
Her mouth parted slightly, but she pulled in the surprise and nodded. She gestured to the conference room.
In the room and with the door closed, Bill leaned against the conference table, his gaze fixed on nothing.
‘If this is about last night, I’m not sorry we went out,’ she blurted out.
Bill looked up at her. ‘What? No. It’s not about that. I enjoyed myself, actually.’
‘Oh.’ Her expression relaxed. ‘Then why do you look so worried?’
Bill straightened up and paced the room. ‘I’ve got a decision to make, but I can’t make it on my own.’
‘Work or private?’
‘Work. The Indigenes, they’re getting sicker.’
Julie’s eyes widened. ‘Are we talking about a pandemic?’
‘No, still localised and only affecting the Indigenes. Humans are immune.’
He didn’t explain why.
Julie blew out a breath. ‘Thank God.’
Bill understood her relief. A pandemic would be difficult to contain.
‘What do you need?’ she asked.
‘Jameson and Harvey are working on a cure. I’ve got an old friend on Earth who has files that might help to speed up that process. But he can’t send them through.’
Julie frowned. ‘Because the interstellar wave is offline?’
Bill nodded, grateful he didn’t have to explain it to her. ‘I’d need to open it out.’
‘But that would be a free-for-all on information. You know that, right?’
Bill had combed over the risks in his head. He was sick of thinking about them. ‘I know. Hackers using AI to strike from the second the Wave is reinstated, exploiting vulnerabilities before we can patch them. But we have a real chance to find a cure.’
Julie paused. ‘Do these files contain an ironclad guarantee that the cure can be found?’
‘Well, no...’
He had no idea what the files contained.
‘Then why bother? Let Jameson and Harvey work on the cure together. The main thing is this isn’t a human problem.’
Bill blinked at her. ‘What does that mean, not a human problem?’
Julie smirked. ‘Come on, Bill. The Indigenes are not our problem. They’ve been creating issues from day one. Also, their immune systems are off the charts, so they’ll probably be fine. The ITF priority has always been to protect the human race, the weaker of the species.’
Bill scoffed. ‘There’s nothing weak about the human race. And I’ll remind you that my wife is half of that species you’re so cavalier about sentencing to death.’
Julie’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh, shit, I’m sorry, Bill. I forgot...’
‘Yeah, you did. But this conversation has been very helpful.’
He marched out of the conference room and entered the stairwell, where he took the stairs to the fifth floor. Amid the sound of whirring servers, he found the head of the three-person IT team.
‘I need AI to re-establish the interstellar wave,’ he said without slowing.
The IT guy frowned. ‘Full access?’
Bill stopped in front of the servers blinking with blue lights. ‘Yeah. All of it. I’m expecting a transfer of files from Earth.’
‘You know what’ll happen?’
‘I do. How long will it take to do it?’
The guy shrugged. ‘As long as it takes for the AI to re-establish connection.’
‘Tell it to delay it by five minutes. And let me know the second it’s done.’
Five minutes would be long enough for him to return to his office and contact Greyson.
‘Sure.’
‘The second the file transfer is complete, tell the AI to kill the connection straight away.’
‘It won’t stop the hackers.’
Bill frowned. ‘Why?’
‘The exploits will begin the second our AI sets it to live. Other AI programs will be poised to run.’
It was a risk Bill had to take. ‘I understand. Make sure it shuts down a millisecond after all the files have been transferred.’
Bill left the floor and returned to the one above. He slipped into his office and called Greyson. ‘Be ready to transmit the files shortly.’
The IT guy called him over the inner comms channel. ‘It’s up and running.’
Bill nodded at Greyson, who hit something on his screen.
An encrypted folder appeared on his end and populated with files, too big to transmit without the wider comms channel. The total reached over five hundred, all mentioning tests that had been carried out on the early Indigene subjects.
Greyson replied, ‘That’s all of them. I hope there’s something useful in there. Good luck.’
He clicked off, leaving Bill to stare at the unopened files.
A new message appeared on screen from IT. “The Wave is offline again.”
He called down to Ben in Laura’s office and told him to join him. ‘And bring your DPad.’
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door.
Ben poked his head in. ‘You wanted to see me?’
Bill nodded, pointing to a seat. ‘Sit down. We’ve got some files to go through.’
Ben did, staring at the list of files. ‘What are these?’
‘Files from Greyson.’
He sensed relief from the teen. At least one person believed Bill had done the right thing.
‘Okay, what are we looking for?’ asked Ben.
‘Any tests involving brain-to-brain communications.’
He flicked half the files over to Ben’s DPad and concentrated on his set on screen. For the next hour he read about countless tests performed on the first-generation Indigenes, completed without their consent and just after they’d been turned. This had all happened before the final memory wipe.
Ben was quiet beside him, concentrating on his set of documents. He scribbled some notes down on several sheets of paper he’d brought with him.
Bill read details on early studies of telepathy and how to turn it on. It was a dormant ability in humans, but in the new species a targeted mutation had woken it up.
Early tests used intervening systems to facilitate the exchange of messages from one brain to another. The senders wore electroencephalography caps fitted with electrodes that were used to record electrical activity. The recipients wore transcranial magnetic stimulation gear, which sent precise magnetic pulses into the brain. Bill scoured the old World Government reports for any mention of Harvey Buchanan, but to his surprise the geneticist’s name failed to show up. Either the young Harvey had not been involved in these tests or Charles Deighton had not given him credit for his work.
These early tests solidified his reasons for opening out the comms.
‘Anything?’ he asked Ben.
‘A bunch of stuff about mutations. Nothing specific about telepathy. Hold on...’
Bill leaned in closer. ‘What?’
‘This one from nine years ago says specific radio wave frequencies were used to test the mutations. Apparently, telepathy operates on different frequencies, depending on the generation.’
Bill raised his brows. ‘First, second?’
Ben nodded.
He thought of Laura. ‘What about third?’
The teen shook his head. ‘Nothing.’
Extra information on the first and second generations was better than nothing. And the report may have been put together before Serena was created, the original third-generation Indigene. He read the report that mentioned precise frequencies at which telepathy turned on and off. This could be it: the cure they’d been after.
Bill’s pulse thundered in his veins. He stabbed at the open document on Ben’s DPad.
‘Get this information over to Jameson and Harvey.’ He stood up. ‘Tell them I’m on my way over there.’
39
The news came as both a shock and a relief to Stephen. Serena, standing by his bedside, calmly told him humans were not infected. At least that was something. The other piece of news, validating his theory about the virus passing through use of telepathy, offered him some comfort. Finally, they had something to work with.
The infirmary that had started out with four sick elders and three sick first gen now had two deaths and seventeen new cases. The virus was beginning to affect the second gen as well as create new cases of first.
Medics rushed around the space that had been cleared of four of the six beds. They took up too much space. Emile and Marie occupied the remaining two beds. Mattresses donned every available space on the floor, to make room for more casualties. But even with the new adjustments, the room’s size couldn’t cope.
Stephen’s own recovery was taking too long. From the second he got sick, he stopped using his telepathy. That action alone had reduced the thumping headaches to a dull pain. But as more sick presented themselves each hour, looking worse than him, he knew his charges were defying his orders not to use telepathy.
Stephen sat up on his mattress, an action that made his stomach queasy.
‘Easy there,’ said Serena. ‘You’re still not well.’
He stuck one leg out over the lip of the mattress. ‘I have to free up a space and resume my duties...’
Serena stopped him with a firm hand. ‘No, you don’t. I’m looking after matters while you’re sick.’
