Earth-Net

by David J. Garrett

  Astrid turned and led Ray back to the complex, departing once Ray was settled. She left the door ajar, but Ray had no thoughts of trying to leave. She found Astrid deeply unsettling but missed her already. Almost like she had met her before. Like they were connected somehow. Ray lay back and waited. Her head a swirl of possibilities. Equal parts despair and surprisingly, hope.

  Astrid returned to collect Ray as promised.

  “I was almost asleep,” Ray signed groggily and then smiled apologetically.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Astrid reassured. “I plan to learn sign language eventually… You ready?”

  In answer Ray swung her feet to the floor and stood up.

  “Then let’s go.” Astrid indicated the door and they moved through. Astrid led Ray through a few twists and turns.

  More labs. Peppered now with occasional white coated workers in gloves, hairnets, and safety glasses. All women apparently. Eventually they stopped in front of a conventional door with a small glass panel in it.

  “Ready?” Astrid inquired.

  Ray steadied herself and nodded.

  Astrid opened the door into a small tea room. A table sat in the middle of the room with four figures seated at it. All four turned as Ray entered, freezing her to the spot.

  Four identical sets of green eyes looked back at Ray. Four sets of copper red hair framing pale, freckled faces. They were all identical to each other and identical to Ray.

  Astrid moved into the room, stood beside one of the women and placed a motherly hand on her shoulder. Suddenly Ray could see it all. Astrid’s eyes and her hair. Her face was older but the features matched.

  “Ray, I would like you to meet your sisters,”

  Ray stared and stared and finally indicated the tablet that Astrid carried.

  “Clones.” Ray wrote, which Astrid confirmed with a nod. “Of you.” Ray wrote pointing to Astrid, to which Astrid also nodded.

  Ray slowly approached the table, pulled out a chair and sat down. There they all were. Or there she was. They were paler than her, from the lack of sun, she presumed, and plumper, less muscular than Ray but otherwise, they were all her. And now that Ray could see Astrid beside them, the resemblance was unmistakable. They were all young Astrid Copelands. Ray felt like she had fallen into a bizarre dream. She stared at them unable to process the enormity of it all. Bones was not her mother. She didn’t have a father. Bones knew all of it but wasn’t ever able to tell her.

  “You five were the first generation,” Astrid explained, “You were all made as well as I could make you. Minimal intervention. Only rapid maturation and consciousness transfer capabilities and I attempted to fix some genetic discrepancies but that’s all.

  Usually, however, some of the modifications do not take. For instance, I have never before fixed my inability to have children and provide a compatible brain for consciousness transfer at the same time.

  You, however, are perfect. Perfect reproductive system and our brains are a perfect physical match. I sequenced your genome as soon as Director Pfeffer sent me a sample of your blood and we scanned your brain when you arrived, before you woke up. You are a miracle. One in a million.”

  The four other Rays nodded along with Astrid though the kind sentiment did not reach their eyes. Ray thought she detected tension in the set of their jaws and none of them were blinking naturally. Ray couldn’t get a read on what they might be feeling. She certainly didn’t get the feeling they were about to jump up and hug their long, lost sister. In fact, Ray was starting to understand how a goldfish must feel or a zoo animal on Earth. The next question came easily.

  “What did you do to my mother?”

  Astrid’s face fell, and she looked down at her hands.

  “Now, that I feel ashamed about. When we arrived CDSE provided us with four local woman who would carry the first generation of children. They told us that they were volunteers. They were in induced comas when we arrived which of course Pritchard and I questioned but the local connection explained to us that the mothers had requested it. They didn’t want to know about the children and wanted to have no memory of the experience.

  We were instructed to implant memory blockers. At the time we were told the mothers had requested them but over the years I have come to doubt that story. We had very little choice. We needed people to help us build and maintain the facility and eventually to help with the Life2 children. I couldn’t carry the babies because of my genetic defect so we did what we had to do.

  The five women, including your mother, were all impregnated with twins under induced coma. I chose to use clones of myself because I couldn’t ask permission of anybody else. Unfortunately, there was a malfunction with your mother’s sedation. She must have woken at some point and she must have fought with Desmond, my husband. She hit him with a fire extinguisher. Very hard and then ran.

  There was evidence that she was also badly injured. A great deal of blood. With no news over all these years we assumed that she must have died. We did not know who the women were and were forbidden to reveal our presence to Dianians, so we had to let her go. And you too as it turned out.

  Desmond was so badly hurt. His injuries were barely survivable. You five are the progeny of that first experiment. There is one question that troubles me though.” Astrid peered at Ray frowning,

  “Why did they take your lungs? You would have been born with them.”

  All five women looked at Ray but, apart from Astrid, Ray saw no sympathy in their eyes, only suspicion.

  Rage started building up in Ray. She wished she could scream at them. Scream that her mother had never been a volunteer. She had been kidnapped and drugged and forced to come to this place buried in the dark. Buried in secret. Along with another four Dianian women it now transpired.

  CDSE and Pritchard had shot Aymes, probably killed Jonah, and taken Ray prisoner. And now to find out that she never even needed a lung implant?

  She lashed out at the table smashing both her fists down hard enough to upset a couple of mugs. She stood up, tipping her chair on its back, and caught one of the mugs before it rolled onto the floor. She held the cold object in her hand, it was made of white printed resin, complete with a black CDSE logo. Just like the ones she had been drinking out of all her life in Atlas. Furious with the lies and the unfairness, she hurled the mug against the wall, channeling all her strength and anger into the useless act of destruction. She wanted the mug to burst like the porcelain she had only read about. Smash into a million pieces, shredding everybody in the room into a bloody pulp like a grenade.

  The four young Astrid’s leapt back as the mug flew from Ray’s hand. Ray saw anger flash through the eyes of one of them and her lips curled back from her teeth for a split second. The printed and virtually indestructible polymer bounced harmlessly off the wall and spun on the floor. “A fitting metaphor,” Ray thought to herself before turning towards the door. She spotted two of her sisters sharing a knowing glance before she stormed out and into the corridor.

  In the midst of her return journey, through the blindness of her rage, a kernel of an idea occurred to her. The beginning of a plan. What CDSE and Astrid were doing ran against every moral fiber in her being, but could she use them. Could they be made to help? Her growing hatred began to focus into a blade. She would stab that blade into the heart of Pfeffer and Jager and the rest of them. Leave them bleeding in the dust. She would take back Diana and Astrid was the key.

  Astrid brought Ray’s lunch a less than an hour later, knocking tentatively on the door. Ray’s first instinct was to grab the tray and hurl the contents at Astrid until she went away. Astrid looked so forlorn and almost scared that Ray took pity on her. She pointed at the table sharply and then pointed at the tablet under Astrid’s arm. As Astrid was handing it over she spoke.

  “I’m so sorry about your friends. I just spoke to Pritchard and it seems Pfeffer was not entirely honest with us. There was not supposed to be fighting and death. You were supposed to be taken, cleanly in
the night, without alerting the engineers. The fewer people who know about us the better. Desmond hinted that there were reasons why Pfeffer might have wanted to get rid of the woman marine and your friend. I’m so very, very sorry. This hasn’t gone the way I wanted at all.” Astrid smiled wanly and picked at her fingernails.

  “You want to use my body next? Transfer your consciousness into me?”

  “Never without your permission,” Astrid asserted, though Ray imagined she saw a covetous look. “I would dearly love to have my own children, with my own body, and transferring to you would make that experience a possibility. When I made you all, I admit, that was my fantasy. As always though, the reality is somewhat different than the fantasy. The other four of you have all been brought up understanding that one day I might ask them to become me. If I’m ill or old. That knowledge of course is completely new to you and must seem totally foreign…” Astrid looked back at her hands, guilty creases on her forehead. “What will you do?” She asked Ray looking back up.

  “Ask questions,” Ray wrote. “You said earlier you came here for two reasons. One; to fix yourself and two; to fix Dianians. What did you mean about Dianians?”

  Astrid nodded, “There was too little time, too much pressure. We were forced to send the Dianians out here unfinished.” Astrid saw Ray looking at her chest moving as she talked. “That’s right. The lung thing was at the top of the list of course. I solved that before I arrived here actually. Pretty simple in the end. Of course, the modifications need to be made to an embryo in vitro. So not much good to everybody living here now.”

  Ray nodded slowly, “you can fix our babies. Make them whole?”

  Astrid nodded, “Yes I can. CDSE made me hold on to my findings for a while. Just during the transition and now with the Life2 program. They pay the bills you see, and things have been very busy but yes, I can fix them. Not if it’s a natural conception you understand. I must be able to access the embryo in the lab. The next generation should be fine though, so long as both the parents are corrected.

  “Then you are going to help us.” Ray typed standing up. “It is not right what you have done here. What has been done to me? It’s sick. CDSE are the devil and you work for them. You carry out their horrifying plans. If you truly want to help Dianians you will help me.”

  “I was blind,” Astrid agreed, “for such a long time. So much of what we did felt wrong but by the time we stopped to think about it the first children were already born, and we were committed. We needed to keep CDSE happy or else they would cut us off. We would have all starved out here.”

  “You could have come to Atlas, asked for help.”

  “I thought of that sometimes, but I was too afraid. There would be too many questions and I knew CDSE were coming and I would have to answer to Pfeffer and Jager.

  Ray decided to change tack, “What happened to Pritchard?”

  Astrid wiped a tear out of her eye and gathered herself visibly. “After your mother hit him he was unconscious for days. He had a bad cerebral hemorrhage and extensive brain damage. Eventually he woke but he was altered.

  He was prone to terrible rages and had virtually no impulse control at all. For a while I had to confine him for both our safety. He calmed somewhat after a few years and I began to let him out. As the girls grew though he began to become obsessed with them. He didn’t seem to be able to differentiate them from me and I guess his memories of us together when I was young confused him.

  He attacked one of the girls while she was sleeping. I didn’t see it but they told me he tried to rape her. The others fought him off. They managed to get out and lock him in their room. He destroyed it utterly. So much rage and pain. They wanted me to lock him back up or put him down, but I couldn’t.

  Instead, I tried to fix him. I’ve tried half a dozen times now. Implants to control his impulses. Restrictors so he feels pain if he tries to touch the girls or me. Drugs to try and level out his anger. He fought against them all. He fought against his implants so hard I suspect he caused himself more damage. I don’t know if he could recognize anything through the pain back then. He couldn’t distinguish lust from anger, everything he tried to do caused him pain, but he couldn’t stop.

  After everything that’s happened the one who tortured him the most was me. I think he knows it too but can’t isolate the anger from the old affection. Jager, of course, found out about him and took him in. He and Pfeffer gave him a purpose. I don’t know what they did with him, but it sounds like he can appear almost normal now. Maybe it was just being away from here and all of us. I suspect Pfeffer uses him for missions that she can’t share with the marines and her regular security might balk at. Desmond has almost no empathy at all and she can use a man like that from time to time.

  When Desmond saw you, he just, seemed to snap. He blames all Dianians for what happened and then he saw a young version of me among them. It appears now that he believes I betrayed him. Lied to him all the way along. That I wanted him dead and I worked with the Dianians to try and achieve it. I’m almost glad I implanted his restrictors now. He may have been ordered to kill you but couldn’t. It appears he wants to hurt you, and all of us now. He’s been restrained since you got here.”

  Ray proceeded to tell Astrid the situation in Atlas. Everything since the arrival of the Humans right up until her kidnapping and the fire fight at the campsite. “Now that Dianians can be free of CDSE control in just one generation of children, we can look at driving them out. A revolution. If, as you say, the Dianians are your children. This is your chance to save all of them. And all the future generations to come.”

  Astrid’s chin had dropped lower and lower during Ray’s tirade. “I can’t in all honesty say that I did not suspect some of what you say but I truly had no idea they would resort to such blatant violence. I never met Captain Spiranos and now I doubt he even knew of my existence or this facility.

  From all accounts he was a nice man with a good heart.” Astrid looked up at Ray, her face serious. “I will help you in any way that I can. It is the least I can do for all the harm that I have caused. Ray smiled and took Astrid’s clasped hands within hers for a second.

  “Good” she wrote. “And now I need to leave. Go back home and tell the others. We have a new plan now.”

  Astrid nodded looking forlorn, “Stay, just for tonight. I hate we are losing you again so soon.” She reached to touch Ray’s forearm but retracted her hand, uncertain now of how to behave.

  Instead, Ray reached out and touched Astrid while trying to compose a reassuring look on her face. A quiet knock on the door interrupted their moment and one of Astrid’s younger clones poked her head around the door. Ray realized she hadn’t heard any footfalls approaching. “Sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt, “she said, a shy frown on her face.

  “That’s OK dear,” Astrid answered, visibly wiping tears from her eyes. We were just finished anyway. Did you girls want to talk to your sister?” The clone nodded. “Well I’ll make myself scarce. It’s not every day you meet a sister you didn’t even know you had.”

  Astrid stood to leave, hugging each of the girls briefly as she exited. Astrid partially closed the door quietly behind her. As soon as she left Ray felt the atmosphere in the room change. The first clone waited with her ear to the door, clearly listening to her mother’s retreating footsteps.

  The last two through the door sidled around the bed looking intently at Ray. Out of the corner of her eye Ray saw something peak from behind the leg of one of the girls, she glanced quickly, instantly recognizing the strap of one of the bed restraints visible beside the girl’s thigh as she tried to hide the bulky device behind her back. At the same time Ray caught a nod from near the door in her peripheral vision.

  Without hesitation, Ray launched herself off the bed and bolted towards the door. The remaining three girls closed over the door preparing to receive her charge. Ray targeted the one standing over the small gap and the corridor beyond. The clone made the mistake of looking at Ray’s ey
es.

  Ray could see she was unprepared, inexperienced in this situation and off balance. Ray flicked her eyes to the right of the girl’s face as she ran. The small movement was enough to fool the girl into transferring her weight into the false trajectory. Instead, Ray headed straight on, launching a brutal left cross into the girl’s jaw, toppling her into her sister and clearing the doorway.

  Ray wrenched the door open simultaneously feeling a sharp pinch in her shoulder muscle. Ignoring it she bolted through. She ran the route she had taken the night before with Astrid, turning corners from memory, certain that she could outrun her out of condition clones.

  She turned the final corner. Seeing the fire exit and crash doors in front of her wild exhilaration filled her. She was going to make it. She could almost feel the cool safety of the darkness swallowing her into the forest. She accelerated further. As she ran the corridor began to stretch and the doors, that were almost within her reach a second ago, started to slide backwards.

  The world listed horribly, and Ray failed to correct in time as her legs gave out and she crashed at full speed into the wall, tumbling onto the floor. The half-depressed syringe that was stuck into her shoulder catapulted free with the impact and skittered across the floor like a thief. Ray saw its murderess sharpness glinting in the bright, artificial light. She saw copies of herself arriving cautiously at the bend in the corridor, watching her fading into unconsciousness once again.

  CHAPTER 27

  Ray wandered back to consciousness staring into blinding lights. A quick test established she was shackled to the bed once again. As her vision returned the various objects in the room came into focus. She was in a room like the surgical suites in Atlas.

  Bright lights, sterile steel tables, and monitoring equipment. Her sisters sat or stood together down one end of the room, chatting with one another in front of a drawn curtain. As Ray stirred, one of them nodded her head to alert the others that Ray was awake. They wandered over to the bed as Ray’s memory returned. Fear and panic starting to seep through the drug malaise.