The Purlieu Experiment, Book 1

by Linda L Rigsbee

  “Have you ever heard of a man called Niall?”

  She sat up straight and nodded again. “He has been in hiding for over 30 years. No one knows where he is.” She regarded him with suspicion. “Except you? Is he the man you saw die?”

  “Yes.” He hesitated again. Giving her information might put her in danger. On further thought, simply being associated with her might put her in danger. Better she knew what she was facing.

  Slowly, he told her of the bizarre conversation. “What is the Anialwch Connection and who is the Fontalo?

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. I can get to the files, but I don’t have a password.

  “I do,” He said. “Would the files of the Baigh be available on the Moeder?”

  “Not if they were his personal files. Do you know what the name of his file was?”

  Donte put his foot down and stood. “The Purlieu Experiment, he said.”

  “I’ve seen that file.” She said. “It does require a password, but nobody on the Baigh knew what it was.”

  “Would it be dangerous for you to look?”

  She shrugged. “I can’t imagine why. We don’t need to tell anyone that we looked, do we?”

  “Do you feel up to going?”

  She smiled. “As long as you are with me. Do you know that my stomach feels much better when you are with me? As soon as you leave, I feel sick again.”

  It had been a phenomena with Liana and Halisi. Since none of them had ever talked to each other, there had to be a reason for it. Up until now he simply thought he kept them distracted, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

  “Then let’s be together all the time.”

  She stood and went to the stove to check on the progress of the hot drinks.

  Donte walked up behind her and caressed her arms while he kissed the back of her neck. “I love you, Rianne.” He slid his arms around her waist and drew her back against his chest.

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “I wonder what your destiny is…and mine.”

  “And our children.” He said as he kissed her cheek.

  “What’s going on in here?” Quade’s voice interrupted their private moment.

  Donte stepped away from Rianne and smiled at his father.

  Quade pulled out a chair at the table and sat down. “It’s about time you got back. Where have you been? I contacted the Baigh and they said you had never arrived. I was getting concerned.”

  Donte pulled out a chair and sat opposite from him. “Rianne and I were talking about my experience.”

  Donte repeated the story as Rianne poured them all hot drinks. She joined them at the table and listened, all the while watching Quade. When Donte finished, Quade looked at Rianne.

  “What do you make of all this?”

  Rianne shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve seen the file and I know who Niall is, but otherwise, it’s all a mystery to me.

  Quade turned his cup around on the table, his expression reflective. Finally he looked at Donte. “I’ve heard of the Anialwch connection. It’s a prophecy. The Parliament returns and the colonies unite in a fight for freedom. The colonists turn against the mascots – all except for one, who leads them to freedom.” He was silent a moment. “He said you were the Anialwch connection?”

  Donte nodded. “Papaw was confused by that but he didn’t say why.”

  “Because the Anialwch connection is supposed to have the gene of the feline, the aves and the camelus.”

  Donte frowned. “Bergen, Libertad and…what else?”

  “Anialwch.”

  Donte breathed a sigh of relief. “Then they were wrong. I’m not The Anialwch Connection.” He glanced at Rianne. “Unless…”

  “You exchange vows with Celyn?”

  He shook his head vigorously. “Absolutely not. I was thinking about the white aves.”

  Quade and Rianne looked at each other before Quade turned back to Donte. “Tell us about the white aves.”

  They both listened intently as he related Celyn’s visions to the events of the white aves that he saw in the desert, the white strigiforme in Lochfowk and finally the white accipitridae in the mountains of Lochfowk.”

  Quade sat for a long time sipping his hot drink, obviously deep in thought. Rianne and Donte waited, sensing he knew far more than he had revealed so far.

  Finally he looked up at Donte. “Tomorrow we need to go look at those files. This all fits together, but there is a piece missing. Maybe we simply don’t know all the facts.”

  “You mean you think I am The Anialwch Connection after all.”

  Quade nodded. “I know you are. The visions and the aves leave no doubt. Maybe I don’t remember the story correctly. How does Celyn connect with the white aves, and who is The Fontalo?”

  “He said that I spoke all the tongues, but I’m not the only one. You do too, Dad.”

  Quade looked at Rianne. “And Rianne.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t speak the language of the Nyumbani or Lochfowk very well – or Anialwch, for that matter.”

  Donte lifted his brows at her. “You seemed to be getting along well enough with King Neirin.”

  Rianne met his gaze. “Donte.” Her tone scolded him, but her eyes teased him.

  Quade looked at each of them in turn. He shook his head and chuckled. “But you speak them, all the same.” He stood. “I’ll contact the Moeder and request an airship in the morning to the Baigh. I was going to stop by the hospital tonight anyway.”

  After Quade left, Donte turned to Rianne. “How did it turn out between Dad and Akira?”

  Rianne stood and picked up their cups. “She’s working at the hospital and has her own cottage. Beyond that, I don’t know.” She placed the cups on the counter and turned to him. “They are together all day at the hospital. I suspect he’s going to see her tonight.”

  Donte chuckled. “I wouldn’t be surprised.” He stood and reached for her. “Let’s go someplace where we won’t be disturbed.”

  Rianne smiled, her eyes twinkling with humor. “Right now?”

  He scooped her off the floor into his arms. “Right now.”

  She put her arms around his neck and lay her head on his shoulder as he carried her up the stairs. She sighed.

  “You’re so strong. You can carry two people up the stairs at once.”

  He laughed. “And here we have an entire family climbing the stairs on only two legs.”

  She giggled. “I missed you so much.”

  Chapter 35

  Donte, Rianne and Quade were up early the next morning and caught the first tram to the airfield where an airship was waiting for them. Their flight to the Baigh was smooth and they were soon at the library. Rianne quickly found Niall’s file “The Purlieu Experiment.”

  When the computer requested a password, she turned it over to Donte. He entered the password Niall had given him and it prompted him for a code.

  Donte looked at Rianne. “He didn’t say anything about a code.”

  “Try the hint.”

  He prompted for the hint, which was “Numbers = Location”

  Donte frowned. “Location? Location of what?” At first he was thinking of a file location, but then something else occurred to him. Only someone who had actually been to the underground complex would know the location. He went to the map book and thumbed through it until he found the map of Lochfowk. He didn’t touch the map as he looked for the location. It was possible that they were being watched right now with a security camera. It was entirely likely that it was being recorded. He noted the latitude and longitude of the underground complex. He studied several other maps before going back to Rianne.

  She smiled. “I knew you would figure it out.”

  When he entered the coordinates, a list of files immediately came up. He navigated to the first file “The Experiment.” It was a personal account written by Niall. They all read the screen.

  “I didn’t know I was born. I never knew my mothe
r and father. I only knew that I spent my childhood in a controlled environment with other children. I didn’t know there was anything else. We were coveted by a group of people, not parents. Our every need was met and we were well educated. As children, we were allowed to live and play together until we became teens. Then we were separated by physical traits and gender. At sixteen, I was allowed to mingle with selected females. I knew love for the first time, but after a while they took her away. I never saw her again. After that it was merely lust, because they were only going to take them away after a while anyway. I was glad when they took me away and put me in charge of the Baigh.

  The Fontalo – our creators – told us nothing, but The Parliament made access to the Purlieu Experiment readily available to the mascots. That was what they called us. It was the first time I realized we were not completely human.”

  Donte took Rianne’s hand and they continued reading.

  “We were genetically modified human cells created in a lab. Our genes were contaminated with the genes of other species. The Bergen mascots, for instance, were given genes from an avialae to help them tolerate the cold. Their genetic makeup determined that they would always have blue eyes, blonde hair and a husky build. Like all of us, they were genetically altered to produce pheromones – the feel good kind.”

  There was a long list of the attributes of each colony in detail. Most of it they knew, though none of them realized that the Anialwch camelus gene changed the shape of their blood cells to stave off dehydration. Donte glanced at Rianne and attempted to inject a little humor into the situation.

  “Camelus – that would explain the two humps on their chest.”

  Her eyes expressed appreciation for the joke, but her lips never responded. He continued reading. The Lochfowk had amphibious genes from the anura.

  He shrugged. “Perhaps that explains their green eyes.”

  “Or their ability to remain fertile when everyone else lost that ability.” Rianne said.

  He looked at her. “I didn’t make that connection.”

  “Buccal pumping.” Quade said. “Anuras breathe through their skin. Lochfowk has all that water – lakes and rivers.”

  Donte considered the information. “She wasn’t afraid to leap into the water.”

  He turned back to the file again. Libertad people had a feline gene, giving them stealth, balance and night vision abilities.”

  Donte stopped again. It was no longer amusing. He was a mix of Bergen and Libertad. Did that mean he had inherited all of these animal genes? How much was human?

  The Nyumbani had the gene of a Caprine to make them adaptable and live on little.

  Donte stopped and turned to Rianne “So they could neglect them. I don’t know if I want to read the rest.”

  Rianne squeezed his hand. “We must. Ignorance is not a sanctuary.” They read on.

  “The colonies were isolated from one another, with the order that they should not mix or in any way make contact with each other. At the time, it was my understanding that their reason for this was because mixing genes and cultures would make the experiment difficult to control. While I could understand this aspect, it was impossible for the spaceships to coordinate without the presence of The Parliament. None of us knew the language of the other.

  The spaceships were provided by the Fontalo and, in the beginning, only mascots were allowed on them. The Parliament and the Fontalo often had opposing points of view. To the Fontalo, we were like kernels of corn…results of genetic modification, not actual humans like them. We were simply animals that were part of an experiment…expendable. To The Parliament, we were a condition of a contract…a funding contention.

  The Fontalo was a huge corporation on Oriel. They were not the government, but without their monetary contribution, the economy would collapse – at least that was how the government saw it. The Fontalo made crops productive and people’s lives better – especially those who composed the government.

  The Parliament didn’t see it that way, but that didn’t stop it from signing a contract with the Fontalo so that they would fund the largest part of The Purlieu Experiment. Of course, the Fontalo had conditions. The largest being the infusion of their mascots into the experiment.

  The Purlieu Experiment, in itself, was benign enough. Their goal was to put 5 colonies on a new planet. The colonists were all volunteer. They were given different environments, governments and implements. The idea was to observe the colonies over a set period of years to see how they developed. The colonists had different degrees of knowledge and skill levels. It was never the purpose of the Parliament that the colonist should refrain from mixing or communicating. Nor did they have any reason to separate them as to physical features. That was insisted on by the Fontalo. They wanted them to match the leaders – who must be mascots. The mascots had been designed to lead. It was the purpose of the mascots to guide and protect the humans.

  One of the reasons the Fontalo didn’t want the mixing of mascots was the fact that mixing intensified the attributes – specifically pheromones. Sometimes the mixed children had super powers. In short, mixing gave the mascots more power – something The Fontalo wanted to retain at all cost to the original experiment.

  Eventually all this came to a head. See my notes on THE PLAGUE.”

  Donte looked at Rianne. “Mixing increases Pheromones?” That might explain a lot – like maybe Sima’s reaction to him…hopefully not Rianne’s. He glanced at her stomach. “Well, our children might not be adorable, but at least people will think they are – even as they remove a fistful of hair.”

  Quade’s laugh was one expulsion of air.

  Rianne smiled and placed a hand on her stomach.

  Donte navigated back to the file list and selected THE PLAGUE. They all began to read.

  “The Fontalo and the Parliament grew increasingly at odds as the Fontalo took control of the experiment. As the population increased with each generation, there was some dissention. They were not volunteers and they didn’t want to live within the rules.

  The Fontalo systematically removed the ones who expressed discord. The Parliament said that this was a normal part of growth, but the Fontalo saw possible harm to their product; namely the mascots. They couldn’t send them back to Oriel, as they told the colonists, because they could cause problems, so they made them a part of the crew on the spaceships. They were given the most dangerous jobs. Consequently, their life span was substantially reduced.

  At some point The Fontalo began to do the math and realized the mascot population growth was too fast. The Fontalo decided they would neutralize the growth by sterilizing selected mascots.

  The Parliament saw no harm in that. After all, they never wanted the mascots involved in the experiment in the first place. In any case, the mascots belonged to the Fontalo. It was at this point that the Fontalo called another conference of the ruling mascots. This is where I became involved.

  I was told that the “inoculation” I was supposed to distribute orally to all the mascots on Purlieu would not harm anyone and only work on the ones who had been selected to sterilize. Only the male mascots would be affected, but the serum would effectively sterilize the male children and any males in vitro. I wish to add that at this point I drank one of the vials and waited to see if it had ill effects before giving it to anyone else. I then distributed it to all the mascots in the colonies. Lochfowk was the last colony I visited, and it was at that point that I became ill. I told them not to take the serum until it could be tested for safety. I went back to the spaceship with that message.

  I believe there was no intent on the part of Fontalo to harm anyone, but neither was there much concern about pre-testing the serum. They and The Parliament worked long hours to find a cure, but the ill effects ran their course before anything could be found. I think the death toll was somewhere around 87%, but the purpose, sterilization, was 100% - for those who took the serum.

  Donte felt sick. The plague wasn’t a disease. He looked at Quade. He was s
taring at the screen, his face pale. He looked at Donte.

  “Anica didn’t take the serum because she was pregnant and wasn’t sure how it would affect the fetus – we didn’t know it was twins at the time.” He shook his head and groaned. “They didn’t consider us to be humans.”

  They continued to read.

  I was unconscious most of the time the worst part started, or I would have warned them. When they couldn’t find a cure, The Fontalo gave the faulty serum to the remaining mascots in their food in an attempt to cover up their mistake. By calling it a plague, and contaminating others later, it looked like they caught the plague from the others when they returned.

  Quade groaned and turned away. “Pieter and I were both at that conference. They treated us like leaders, and all the while they were conspiring to kill us…or at least 87% of us.”

  Rianne had her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and her face was pale.

  No wonder Pieter thought it was unsafe to read the files. Did he know all this? Where would he have learned…Niall? The underground complex wasn’t far from Bergen, and Pieter said there were ways to protect them. Donte shook his head.

  “Life in Nyumbani was so simple.”

  They continued reading.

  The Parliament was horrified at what had happened and severed their relationship with Fontalo – effectively abandoning the experiment when they left. Their official claim was that the experiment was a failure due to the contamination on Purlieu that had caused a plague. Left holding all the evidence, Fontalo also abandoned the experiment. They left the remaining mascots behind and three spaceships to protect the planet. It is my firm belief that they only left the spaceships because they intended to return. With all the mascots sterilized, they would all be gone by the time they returned. They didn’t know about Lochfowk. I know what they are capable of, so I began making preparations for a defense when they return. One of my preparations was to learn all the languages. See my file THE ANIALWCH CONNECTION.”

  Donte stared at the screen. “It’s so much worse than we thought.”

  Rianne’s palm was wet – or maybe it was his. He removed his hand from hers and wiped it on his trousers.