Re: Gen

by Kevin Carneglia

  The man returned carrying a clipboard with several different papers

  “...Can’t wait to fly this thing!”

  “Glad to see you’re enthusiastic,” the salesman said without sounding very happy himself.

  “Oh, yeah. This is only my second ship.”

  The man nodded and handed Arlen the paperwork. Centara rolled her eyes as her brother signed himself away. That’s a lot of paperwork... Still, she remained silent as Arlen wrote his name down several times.

  “Thank you very much, sir.”

  The salesman tipped his hat to Arlen, then took the paperwork to the room it had come from. Arlen admired the ship from afar, but could tell Centara still wasn’t completely convinced with the idea.

  “Come on, Cent. Aren’t you excited for being able to go wherever we want?”

  “Oh, sure. We can go to Venus, where people get burned alive by acid, or maybe Saturn, where people freeze to death! Oh, the adventures we’ll have!”

  Centara put her hand on her forehead in her typical drama queen fashion, but Arlen ignored her; his mind was already lost in other ideas. We can finally get off this planet. Maybe I’ll even enter in the Ship Races. And, I can find that cute chick from the bar on Venus. The salesman returned from the back room, forcing Arlen back to reality.

  “Hope yer happy with your new ship. Do you want insurance fer it?”

  Arlen eyed the man suspiciously. What were the chances of something happening? I have a feeling he’s just trying to get more creds out of me, Arlen told himself. He saw Centara looking at him, waiting impatiently for an answer.

  “No, thanks.”

  The man nodded. Arlen had often heard his parents complain about people hassling them to buy ship insurance. Before his father’s crash, however, they had almost always refused to buy insurance.

  “Okay, then. Oh, I almost forgot!”

  The man reached into his pants pocket and retrieved a small green card. He offered it to Arlen, who was confused.

  “All our ship purchases come with a free tank of Warp Fuel. Enjoy.”

  Sweet! Arlen took the card and pocketed it in one swift motion. Centara looked less than amused.

  “Thanks. I will.”

  Almost immediately upon exiting the shop, Arlen’s head was again swimming with possibilities of where to travel. Wow! Warp Fuel. We can get anywhere with that…and fast! He noted. He turned to Centara to express his joy.

  “So, where do you wanna go? We can go almost anywhere now that we have a ship!”

  Centara glared at him. Why isn’t she excited? He looked at her a long moment, then put a heavy hand on her shoulder.

  “Cent? Something wrong?”

  “I just…don’t think we should be doing all this without mom knowing anything. You know how she worries.”

  Arlen bit his lip; true, he hadn’t thought much about what his mother would think. And besides, he was going to Omni-Message her every now and again.

  “Yeah, you’re right… I should at least O-Message her I guess.”

  “Why don’t we just go home? I need a few changes of body if we’re gonna be gone for a while.”

  Arlen sighed. He hadn’t planned on going back home first, and Centara was always so high-maintenance. Still, he guessed he should go back.

  “Do you really need them? I don’t wanna spend the gas if I don’t have to.”

  Centara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, throwing herself hard against the seat of the ship. The ship itself rocked, and Arlen looked over at her.

  “Fine. If you’re gonna be like that the whole time, we’ll go back home first.”

  Centara smiled.

  “Thank you,” she said smugly.

 

  Chapter Five

  Eric Sibelius walked into the dimly lit laboratory. The room itself was kept ice cold because of the organisms that were wriggling and thriving everywhere in small vials. Dr. Morrow eyed the Gen Lab across the way with curiosity, but didn’t dare go inside without first getting Sibelius’ permission; after all, Morrow was supposed to be working.

  “So, you like our Gen Lab?”

  Morrow jumped at the sound of Sibelius’ voice; he couldn’t tell if he was in trouble or not.

  “Oh, Mr. Sibelius….I…didn’t see you there.”

  Sibelius laughed his usual rich, wicked-sounding, laugh, but Morrow knew this wasn’t necessarily a sign of impending doom. Morrow was about to resume working when he turned back to Sibelius.

  “Yes, it’s very nice…could I see it, perhaps?”

  “Of course.”

  Sibelius motioned for Morrow to follow him. Morrow tried not to start jumping for joy; he’d only seen a Gen Lab once before, at a small research facility that he guessed paled in comparison to the labs of a research giant like Enigma Corporation. He longed for the chance to see what sort of take a visionary like Sibelius had on the re-generation of the human body after death.

  Morrow followed Sibelius to the door, where he punched in a four-digit code. Morrow watched as the bay doors opened, releasing a small puff of smoke as they did. Inside, the room was approximately the size of seven office cubicles, with several scientists maintaining vials filled with small fetuses. The fetuses weren’t moving, but the scientists didn’t seem concerned.

  “Wow…”

  “Enigma takes Soma Generation very seriously, as you can see.”

  One of the scientists retrieved a small vial with an eyedropper inside. He dripped two drops of a green liquid into the fetus, which instantly grew bigger. Morrow raised his brows; it wasn’t everyday a civilian got to see Soma Generation. He remembered working for another similar company, SomaTech, and having to defend the company against attacks that Soma Generation was unnatural, messing with God’s intended design, and so forth. Morrow, much to his co-workers’ surprise, had faced the whole thing with a smile, simply citing the cold, hard facts that Soma Generation and Soma Switching had saved hundreds of lives.

  Morrow had experienced the saving power of Soma Switching in his own life. His wife’s former body suffered from a debilitating bout of Thyroid Cancer for years before his co-workers at SomaTech were able to custom design the body of a healthy young woman to replace her old one.

  Morrow could see why some despised the process, which basically invalidated the conventional idea of a soul by simply moving it from body to body long after a person’s “natural” death was supposed to have happened. Yes, with Soma Switching, the soul was meaningless and not at all unique, but Morrow believed it was a small price to pay for having prolonged life.

  After the boost the Last War gave to the economy, however, Morrow felt that the process had been somewhat devalued. Now, in what Morrow called the Super Information Age, any kid with a decent job could afford to buy multiple bodies. In his opinion, this had taken Soma Generation from a life-saving solution to a mere toy that served the whimsies of the younger generation. He didn’t much appreciate ungrateful kids who slipped in and out of bodies like they were some ancient fashion from the 2010’s.

  Morrow watched as the fetus was exposed to the green liquid again, and the body of a young woman emerged. The scientist pushed a switch, causing several machine hands to appear from a side wall and dress the young woman in a light grey skirt and black button tee. Morrow looked back at Sibelius as if waiting for a reaction from the man. Sibelius seemed surprised that Morrow was looking at him.

  “Well, you’d best be getting back to work. You can work in here if you want to.”

  Morrow was still shocked at the process and how normal it seemed to everyone around him, but managed a small nod.

  “Thank you, Mr. Sibelius.”

  Sibelius nodded and walked out of the room. Morrow went back to fetch his tools from the other room. He was about to begin working again when something on the far wall caught his eye, and he stopped dead.

 

  Chapter Six

  Arlen immediately r
egretted his decision to go home. He stood in the kitchen, shoulders slumped, while his mother went on and on about him having “borrowed” his cousin’s body.

  “I can’t believe you, Arlen. I told you not to touch it!”

  Arlen bit his lip and hesitated a moment. He wasn’t quite sure whether he should add that he used the body to defend Centara. Above him, the sound of his sister rummaging through her suitcase could be heard. Arlen still didn’t think his mother would buy the fact that they were going to visit their aunt and uncle on Venus for a few weeks. He turned back to his mother, hoping not to draw attention to Centara.

  “Look, Cent called me and said she was in trouble. I just took it to help her. Sorry.”

  His mom said nothing for a long moment and Arlen thought maybe it would’ve been better to do nothing at all. Finally, she broke the awkward silence with a heavy sigh.

  “Fine, Arlen. Just fine…”

  Arlen sensed it wasn’t ‘fine’, but his mother’s OmniLink suddenly vibrated, giving Arlen a welcome distraction. He slipped upstairs under the guise of ‘seeing how his sister was doing.’

  “This discussion isn’t over, young man! What? Oh, no not you, Mr. Jones. Yes, I’ll have the account info by Friday…”

  Arlen knocked on the door to Centara’s room, having learned all too well from prior experience that he needed to ask his little sister’s permission before entering.

  “Come In.”

  Arlen pushed the creaky oak door open, feeling the plush pink carpet through his socks. He watched Centara digging through her closet.

  “Can we leave soon? I think mom’s getting suspicious.”

  “As soon as I find this one body I’ve been looking for…here it is! Finally.”

  Centara pulled a lifeless body with dark skin out from the closet. The girl was dressed in what was generally called “simpleton clothing”, a plaid red and white shirt with jean shorts and overalls.

  “Where’d you find her?” Arlen asked a hint of disgust in his voice.

  “Lower lands. That night mom thought I slept over Cassie’s.”

  Arlen smiled; his sister did have a spirit of adventure after all. Centara threw the body into her suitcase. Arlen watched her pack five other things she probably didn’t need, including a limited edition CD signed by her favorite band, Supernova. Arlen tried to be patient while she finished packing. He hoped the ship had room for all her excess crap.

  “Ready?”

  Centara nodded. Arlen led her downstairs, helping her carry a large red suitcase in the hopes it would get them out the door faster.

  “Bye, Mom!”

  “Bye, guys. Remember to O-Message me and be careful.”

  “We will,” Arlen said, barely listening.

  They closed the front door and headed out into the unknown.

  Chapter Seven

  Dr. Morrow glanced at the wall a second time to make sure he’d seen correctly; he had. This can’t be…on the wall were photos of different villages that Morrow had helped the company ravage during the Great War. Why would they keep evidence of this? Morrow reached for a picture just as the intercom decided to blare throughout the building:

  “Dr. Sands, please report to the Erasing Room, Dr. Gregory Sands to the Erasing Room.”

  The door to the labs hissed open, and a tall man with tan skin entered. Dr. Morrow watched as the man walked to the wall of pictures and selected one labeled “Paris, France. 10 Years Before Impact.”

  The scientist, who Morrow presumed was Dr. Glasse, took the picture and headed to another door in the back of the labs. So, that’s what they’re doing…erasing memories of The Impact. Interesting. But Why? Morrow had never worked in an Erasing Room before, and was tempted to follow Glasse inside. However, he decided it would be in his best interest to get back to work.

  Morrow made his way over to the center of the lab, where scientists were bathing the newly generated bodies in odd-colored chemicals. He walked over to one of the women experimenting with the bodies.

  “Um, excuse me, could I borrow some of that?”

  Morrow pointed to a yellowish chemical that sat in a massive basin. The woman looked at him strangely. The doors to the lab opened again, and this time it was Sibelius who stepped in.

  “You’ll have to forgive her; she only knows Bleepspeak.”

  “Ah.”

  “Dr. Silver, perchance canhas some?”

  Morrow wasn’t sure how to feel. He was happy that Sibelius knew how to talk to Dr. Silver without coming across as an oddball, but also felt somewhat afraid that Sibelius had probably watched him examine the Impact photos via camera. In fact, it was possible Sibelius knew everything he was doing at all times. That thought was…disturbing, to say the least.

  Dr. Silver nodded, and went to fetch something to spoon the material into.

  “I didn’t fancy you as a Bleepspeak man, Mr. Sibelius.”

  For perhaps the first time ever, Morrow saw Sibelius smile slightly.

  “Why not? It’s what all the kids are doing nowadays.”

  Sibelius walked towards the back door that led to the Erasing Room. Dr. Silver returned with a vial full of the yellow liquid.

  “Nosniff. Madbad.”

  Morrow sighed. His Bleepspeak was a bit rusty considering he’d refused to learn what he considered the language of the uneducated until he was about 30. He tried to recall what little he knew.

  “Er…thanksmuch.”

  “Welcome.”

  Morrow took the vial and put a cork on it. It was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Eight

  Two hours and half a can of warp fuel later, Arlen found himself once again giving into his sister’s whims. They’d stopped at a StarPort on Mars for Arlen to get food and Centara to shop. Despite the fact that Arlen had reminded her several times they only had about 100 credits to spend, Centara was headed to the most expensive place on the Starbase, Dark Matter. Her favorite clothing place was a store Arlen had been dragged through dozens of times as a kid, but he still never understood why his less expensive, loose-fitting clothes from Meteor Mart weren’t just as stylish as Centara’s tastes.

  “Do you guys sell Shock Value clothes here?”

  The man was about to answer when the store’s OmniLink line rang.

  “Dark Matter, this is Chris. How can I help you?”

  Is this guy serious? Centara rolled her eyes on the cashier’s sheer inability to focus on her. Centara heard a man’s voice rambling about something being defective on the other end.

  “I’m sorry you’re unhappy, sir, but there’s nothing I can do…all our products come straight from corporate on Saturn…”

  Annoyed, Centara turned her back to the counter and wondered what Arlen was up to.

  Meanwhile, across the Starbase, Arlen waited patiently in line for a chance to try “the only fish imported from Earth!” at King Neptune’s Famous Seafood and Poultry. I hope this is worth the wait, Arlen reflected. Finally, he reached the front of the line. A short Asian woman offered Arlen a sample of something called “Fried Clam Strips”, which he gratefully accepted. The crunchy texture wasn’t his favorite, but it was better than nothing. After a few moments of perusing the menu, Arlen finally selected Buffalo Chicken Strips and went to sit down. Suddenly, a voice called him from across the Starbase.

  “Arlen!”

  He nearly jumped out of his chair. Centara was running towards him, carrying three shopping bags from Dark Matter. Fantastic. Now I have to survive on barely anything, he thought.

  “You scared the crap out of me, sis.”

  “Sorry. But I have to tell you about these shoes I got. On sale!”

  Centara’s rambling was, thankfully Arlen thought, interrupted by her OmniLink ringing. She rummaged through her purse and finally saw there were three O-Messages waiting for her. She looked at the first one:

  “From: Mom

  Hi, Cent. Can you call me? It’s urgen
t.”

  “Mom O-Messaged me? That’s weird.”

  Centara brought the spherical device closer to her face.

  “Call Mom.”

  Arlen waited in suspense as the call was dialed, wondering if the news they received would jeopardize their mission.

 

  Chapter Nine

  A pair of footsteps echoing from down the hall caused Dr. Morrow to look up from his work for the first time in days. He did a double take when he realized the person standing before him was not Sibelius, but Sibelius’ daughter Andrea. Morrow had had romantic interest in Andrea for years, but, being that she was next in line to take over Enigma Corp., neither party felt it was appropriate for them to date.

  “Andrea? What are you doing here?”

  “Dad’s busy. He wants me to ask you how the work’s going.”

  Morrow looked between his work and Andrea for a long second, knowing he probably wouldn’t do his best work when she was around. Had Sibelius brought the young girl in simply to fuck with his head?

  Morrow tried to clear his mind of any thoughts about her; after all, Andrea could read him as if his thoughts were stamped across his face, an ability she occasionally used to manipulate him.

  “Good…I should have some weapons ready in a few days or so.”

  Andrea nodded silently, though Morrow wasn’t quite sure whether it was a nod of approval or not. He waited an awkward moment to see if she would simply leave or ask him further questions.

  “You need any help? I did intern here for two summers, you know.”

  How can I be sure she’s not up to something? Still, Morrow decided he could use the help.

  “You know Bleepspeak?”

  “A little.”

  Andrea’s brow furrowed with confusion; she hadn’t needed to use it since High School, but still felt it was something she remembered well. Morrow motioned for Andrea to follow him back to the center of the lab, where the fetuses were being experimented on. He led her to Dr. Silver.

  “I trust you have some knowledge of Soma Generation?”

  Before the sentence was fully emitted, Morrow regretted saying it. He felt Andrea was probably disparaged by his general tone and expected to get lectured. Much to his surprise, however, Andrea smiled.

  “Just what I’ve read in Middle School textbooks,” she cracked.