by PJ Hoover
“It’s a retinal scan,” Iva said.
Cory shrugged and placed his eyeball in front of the scanner. The light scanned it, and the door opened.
“We got you guys on the access list,” Iva said, walking through the door.
Benjamin followed, but then turned when he realized Andy wasn’t behind him. “Aren’t you coming?”
Andy grimaced like he’d just taken a huge sip of Amoeba Juice. “No way. I’ve spent way too much time in there.”
Iva sighed. “It’s not that bad, Andy.” She headed back, grabbed his hand, and dragged him through the door.
“It’s horrible,” Andy said. “All we’ve done for the last two weeks is watch Gary and Aurora compare test tubes. ‘Oh, this one looks green,’” he mimicked. “‘Oh, this one looks green and slimy.’ ‘Oh, and look at this one—it’s green and slimy and chunky.’”
Benjamin laughed because…well…it sounded just like Gary and Aurora.
“But you have to come in this time,” Iva said, still dragging Andy. “Benjamin and Heidi are back, and anyway, maybe Gary and Aurora have figured something out.”
“I don’t even know what they’re trying to figure out in the first place,” Andy said, shaking his head. But he followed Iva to the elevator where they went down to the floor labeled i20.
Gary dropped his test tube when Benjamin and Heidi walked through the door. It stopped mid-air, and Benjamin telekinetically settled it back in its tray.
“Oh, that was close,” Gary said, grabbing the test tube again and brushing it off. “Where have you been?”
“Yeah, good question,” Aurora said.
But Benjamin didn’t answer right away. He was still looking around. “What is this place?”
“It’s our own personal laboratory,” Gary said.
“Yeah,” Aurora added. “Selene pulled some strings and got us some space.”
“To do what?” Benjamin asked. How many science experiments could any two people possibly do?
But Gary shook his head. “Just give me a few more hours. I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”
“See,” Andy said. “I told you so. He’s been saying that same thing for two weeks now.”
“Which leads back to the original question,” Gary said. “Where have you been for two weeks?”
“Well,” Benjamin began. “After the shields came down, we accidentally ran into Kronos.”
“I knew it!” Aurora said. “I knew Kronos had to be involved in this. I don’t know why DOPOT doesn’t just lock him up and throw away the key.”
“How do you lock up a time traveler?” Andy asked.
“That’s beside the point,” Aurora said. “Let’s hear what Kronos did this time.”
Benjamin, Heidi, and Cory gave them the short version. The really short version. It was obvious from Gary’s continued fiddling with the test tubes that he and Aurora had something else on their minds.
“Where’s Jack?” Heidi looked around the room.
Andy shrugged. “Probably lost deep in GERC. He’s been exploring for two weeks straight.”
“GERC?” Cory asked.
Gary cleared his throat. “That’s what Andy started calling this place.”
“Genetic Engineering Research Campus is way too long,” Andy said. “You’d have to be crazy to call it that.”
“GERC is good,” Heidi said. “Nice and short.”
“Hey, it’s great to catch up and all, but do you mind getting up?” Gary asked Benjamin. “You’re sitting right on my notes.”
Benjamin stood up and looked down at the thought cache he’d been sitting on. He picked it up and started to read it, but Gary, with telenergetic power Benjamin didn’t even know he had, levitated it out of Benjamin’s hands and across the room.
“I’ll tell you everything in a couple hours,” Gary said. “I promise.”
“Fine,” Benjamin said. “So what do we do until then?”
“I don’t care,” Gary said. “Just leave the lab.”
If it had been anyone besides Gary, Benjamin might have been offended. But it was Gary. And Gary was all about science.
They headed out of the lab, leaving Gary and Aurora to their work.
“Let’s look around,” Benjamin said.
Andy shook his head. “Not me. I’ve done enough ‘looking around’ to last me a millennium.” He’d hardly finished talking before he teleported away.
“Heidi and I need to catch up,” Iva said. “We’ll see you guys in a little while.” And without even so much as a goodbye, the two girls teleported away, also, which left Benjamin and Cory outside the lab together.
“So what do you know about genetic engineering?” Cory said. “Because aside from the Cyclops, I never saw much of anything strange back in Troy.”
Benjamin shrugged. “Not much. Who you really need to talk to is Jack.”
And Jack materialized.
“Did someone call me?” Jack asked.
Benjamin laughed. “I knew you’d turn up. Cory wants a genetic engineering lesson.”
Jack’s golden eyes grew to the size of acorns. “Great! I found the perfect place.”
They followed Jack as he wound a path even farther underground.
“Are you leading us to Hell?” Benjamin asked as the halls seemed to spiral and loop back on themselves. How did anyone keep their sense of direction down here?
“It’s just around the corner,” Jack said. And he teleported them into a room the size of a large cafeteria. “This is the stuff they don’t teach in Genetic Engineering 101.”
“What are all these things?” Benjamin looked around. “Should we even be down here?”
“There aren’t any ‘no trespassing’ signs,” Jack said.
“Yeah, but there’s also no door,” Benjamin said.
“A technicality,” Jack said. “If we can teleport in here, then we’re allowed to be in here.”
Cory walked to the nearest table and picked up a glass jar. “Doesn’t this look an awful lot like a person?”
Benjamin walked over to see. It did look like a person. A small, bald person. “It kind of reminds me of a Nogical,” he said.
Jack scowled. “It’s not a Nogical.” He squinted through the glass. “It’s not even green.”
Cory set the jar down and moved to pick up another one. This one’s features were better defined, and small hair follicles grew from the skin. But the fingers were webbed. “How about this one?”
Jack got close to the jar. “The skin color is better, but the arms and legs look like flippers.”
Benjamin turned and scanned the room. Table after table was covered in glass jars, each set apart and labeled with a serial number in ancient Lemurian.
“How old are these samples, Jack?” Benjamin asked.
Jack screwed up his face as he thought about it. “Hmmm. Given that everything’s in Ancient Lemurian, I’d say they’re from before the sinking.”
“Before Atlantis sunk into the ocean!” Benjamin said.
“Before Atlantis or Lemuria sunk into the ocean,” Jack corrected.
“You’re telling me these experiments are over twenty-five thousand years old?” Benjamin asked.
“At least,” Jack said. “Keep in mind Atlantis was founded four-hundred thousand years ago.”
“And genetic engineering went on back then?” Benjamin asked. He moved to another table and squatted down to look into a large jar, the size of a barrel. As he looked into the container, wide, lifeless eyes stared back at him. “Look at this.” It was barely a whisper.
Cory and Jack came over to join him.
The figure in the container was as big as Benjamin himself. It sat in the gel; frozen; perfect.
“Jack?” Benjamin asked.
“Yep?”
“When did humans first appear on Earth?” Benjamin asked, and even as he asked it, he felt a sick, kind of hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Well, humanoid type people started appearing on
Earth eight hundred thousand years ago at least,” Jack said.
Benjamin shook his head. “No, not humanoid type people.” He nodded his head in the direction of the barrel. “Humans in their present form.”
“About two hundred thousand years ago,” Jack said. “Probably about as old as this jar here.”
Benjamin felt the truth as sure as he knew he had ten toes. “Jack?”
“Yep?”
“Do you think humans were genetically engineered?” Benjamin couldn’t believe he was asking the question. He’d grown up with humans. Heck, he’d grown up thinking he was a human. Maybe a strange human, but still a human.
Jack looked around the room. “I don’t really see how we could draw any other conclusion.”
“So you’re telling us that Atlantians genetically engineered humans two hundred thousand years ago and placed them on Earth?” Cory let out a low whistle.
Jack angled his head and scratched at some letters on the jar. “Yeah, I think that is what I’m telling you. And based on what we’re seeing here, they took their own telegen DNA and started mutations and experiments.”
“But why?” Cory asked.
“Why not?” Jack asked. “Why do scientists do anything?”
“Do you think humans were engineered to be slaves?” Benjamin asked.
“I don’t know.” Jack cocked his head. “But I think we should get Gary and Aurora down here.”
As busy as Gary and Aurora were, when Benjamin contacted them telepathically and gave just a small teaser of where they were, they arrived via teleportation in about five seconds. Benjamin gave them a minute to get acclimated to the room.
“This place wasn’t on the tour,” Aurora said.
“And that surprises you why?” Jack said.
After a minute, Benjamin couldn’t wait any longer. “Gary, humans are genetically engineered. Just like Nogicals.”
“No,” Jack said. “Not just like Nogicals. Nogicals were engineered to excel at everything telenergetic. Humans have no telenergetic skills whatsoever.”
“Wait a second.” Gary shook his head and took a huge breath. “Slow down. Humans? Genetically engineered. That’s impossible. They evolved.”
“Look around, Gary,” Benjamin said. “These jars aren’t lying. Telegens may have evolved, but humans didn’t.”
Gary didn’t say a word. Instead he walked around the room, followed by Aurora. They studied each container, starting at the small hairless ones, and stopping at the full size human.
“Do you realize what this means?” Gary asked.
Benjamin nodded. “Humans were bred to be inferior. It was intentional.”
Aurora threw up her hands in disgust. “Which makes all the research we’ve been doing for two weeks futile.”
“What research?” Benjamin asked. “You never told us what you were doing.”
Gary sighed. “It doesn’t matter now. If this is really true.”
“Why?” Cory asked. “What difference would it make?”
“We’ve been trying to find some telenergetic power in humans,” Aurora explained.
“Right,” Gary said. “We figured if humans were just on a slower evolutionary path than telegens, then they should still have telenergetic potential.” He shook his head. “But if they were created specifically to not have any telenergetic powers, then it’s all been useless.”
Disappointment pounded through the Alliance bond, and Aurora must have sensed it also. She put her hand on Gary’s arm. “You know, we could still keep up the work.”
Gary sank into himself. “What’s the point?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seemed like we were getting close. Maybe there’s something we overlooked.”
“I doubt it,” Gary said. “I kept hoping we’d have an answer, and each day it seemed like we were getting closer and closer.”
“Let’s go back to the lab,” Aurora said.
But Gary shook his head. “No, Not me. You go ahead and go if you want. I just want to be alone for a while.”
Benjamin knew better than to say anything. Not that he would’ve known what to say anyway. They teleported out of the room and headed back to the main level, leaving Gary alone with the jars.
CHAPTER 26
As If Dealing With Humans Wasn’t Bad Enough
Gary wasn’t the only one who needed time alone. What with time traveling to a bleak future, finding out his missing brother was really a sister, and learning humans had been genetically engineered, it was like his head would explode. So when Cory teleported away to take a shower, Benjamin found a fountain on the way back to the hotel and sat down. He closed his eyes and did his best to filter out the problems of the world, but they kept coming back, no matter what he tried. First he focused on the leaves, most of which had fallen to the ground. But the leaves didn’t take his mind off Caelus and Gaea. Next he thought about the water, but it only made him think of Nathan. Then there was the fish, but Phoebe came to mind. He knew it was pointless.
“Mind if I join you?”
Benjamin opened his eyes and saw Ananya smiling down at him.
“I thought you were heading back to Xanadu,” he said.
“That was this morning for you,” Ananya said. “But for me, it has been four days.”
“Four days!” Benjamin said. “You’re kidding.”
Ananya shook her head. “Remember what I told you once before? Time does not flow the same in Xanadu as it does in other places on Earth. And for us at this time, that is not good news.”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what she meant. “Caelus and Gaea?”
“Exactly,” Ananya said. “In the half a day you’ve had here, they’ve had four full days to prepare.”
“So at this rate—”
She cut him off. “No, the ratio is not always the same. Sometimes time flows faster, sometimes slower, and there are even times when it ebbs away at the same pace.”
“How bad is it?” Benjamin asked. He didn’t really want to know, but he knew he had to.
Ananya almost seemed to sink in on herself. “Far worse than I had suspected. They’ve taken complete control of the hidden city.”
“Did they know you were there?” Benjamin asked.
“No,” Ananya said. “My allies concealed me so I could observe without danger.”
“Who? Apollo?” Benjamin asked, referring to when he’d actually first met Apollo in Xanadu.
“No, Apollo left Xanadu shortly after your visit,” Ananya said. “Needless to say, your visit concerned us.”
It had concerned Benjamin, but Apollo and Ananya had seemed unfazed. “Why?”
Ananya didn’t speak for a while, and Benjamin didn’t press her. He could tell she was deep in thought, though her mind was blocked like a steel trap. It was only after minutes had gone by that she finally opened her eyes and spoke.
“Benjamin,” she said. “There is something I need to tell you. Something I probably should have told you before. But I’m not perfect, and my powers only reach so far.” She put her head in her hands. “I just didn’t think it was possible. I still can’t believe it’s possible.”
“What?” he asked. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
She sighed and seemed to regain her composure. “It’s about your test. The test you took to gain the second key of Shambhala.”
It was the last thing Benjamin expected Ananya to bring up, and he hated that she’d brought it up. He’d hated the test. It was the worst thing he’d ever experienced in his life—even now—after everything that had happened. He’d put it as far back in his mind as he possibly could, but still it managed to resurface from time to time. Mostly when he was near his twin brothers, Derrick and Douglas, and his baby sister Becca.
“Do you remember what I’m talking about, Benjamin?” Ananya asked.
“Of course I remember,” Benjamin snapped. “How could I forget something like that?”
“I’m sorr
y, Benjamin,” she said. “But we need to talk about it. It’s as hard for me to talk about as it is for you.”
Benjamin laughed. “I doubt that. Your brothers didn’t almost die. Your mother wasn’t drowned in an underground cavern. You didn’t have to pick and choose which lives to save.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “But we need to discuss it. It’s important.”
“You told me it was only a stupid test—something I dreamed up myself.”
“I may have been wrong,” Ananya said. “After you left, Apollo and I discussed it at great length and even went down the fountain ourselves. We came to the conclusion that there were greater powers at work during your test.”
“I knew it!” Benjamin said. “I knew it even at the time. I’d never have dreamed up something that horrible myself. I couldn’t possibly.”
Ananya nodded. “After you left Xanadu and after we descended the fountain, Apollo and I detected a presence in Xanadu which I hadn’t detected in thousands of years.”
“Gaea,” Benjamin almost whispered.
Ananya nodded. “Or Reva as she was known in Xanadu.”
“Heidi and I felt it when we were leaving,” Benjamin said. “On the way back to the Universal Travel Agent. We heard her howling in the wind, and Heidi said she’d never felt anything so evil in her life.”
“We felt the same thing,” Ananya said. “So we decided we needed to check the cell where Reva—Gaea—had been imprisoned. Nobody had been there in ages, but Reva shouldn’t have been able to escape. When we got there, the cell was empty.”
“How did she get out?” Benjamin asked.
“We think Nathan let her out,” Ananya said. “And then she was free.”
“Free to return to Atlantis and join Caelus in his plans to control the world,” Benjamin said.
Ananya nodded. “You know the rest. But I need to apologize.”
“For what?” Benjamin asked. As far as he could tell, Ananya didn’t have anything to be sorry for.
“For not telling you sooner,” Ananya said. “As soon as I thought the test was being controlled, I should have interceded. But I didn’t. I let the test carry through, and luckily, nobody was hurt. I believe the only reason your family remained safe was because Gaea didn’t want to alert anyone to her newly returned power.”
