Genesis Variant (Genesis Book 6)

by Eliza Green

  ‘And the others?’

  Tanya nodded. ‘All of the Elite have seen tremendous results. We need more power from the grid. Who knows how long these changes will last?’

  Simon was confused. The changes were only to facilitate transcendence so the Elite could ditch their bodies in exchange for everlasting life.

  ‘The power was to give you enough strength so you could continue with your treatment. Besides, it may not matter much if we can’t access much more of the Nexus than we do. Let’s wait and see how long these changes last before—’

  Tanya waved her hand dismissively. ‘I don’t want to wait, and neither do the other Elite. We want to access all of the Nexus. If that small amount did this to us, can you imagine what the whole thing would do?’

  ‘And how are you going to get inside the district? What about your plans for transcendence?’

  ‘They’re linked. Dr Jameson says it might be possible to transcend with minimal power, but the Nexus would guarantee success.’

  ‘And my other question?’

  ‘That’s where the Conditioned can help. I may look good, but I’m not as strong as them. If Dr Jameson can transfer the Elite’s consciousness, or at least a copy, to the Conditioned’s consciousness, we can piggyback on it to physically enter the Nexus. We need them as a power source. The Nexus is proving our best chance make this happen.’

  Using the Conditioned in this way? Simon’s skin prickled at the thought. ‘What will happen to the handpicked Conditioned during this “transformation”?’

  Tanya walked over to him and gripped his face a little too tight. ‘They will be a sacrifice, Simon. A worthy sacrifice. But before we can use the Nexus for final transformation, we must reach stage two.’

  Simon released a breath when Tanya let go of his face and walked to the other side of the room. In their current state, Tanya and the others could reach that stage sooner. But at least it gave Simon time.

  ☼

  Simon was on observation room duty that afternoon, a task he rarely minded. But today, all he wanted was some space to think about what was about to happen.

  He shielded his thoughts from the pair of Conditioned on duty and thought about Tanya’s renewed vigour. No longer did Tanya’s plans for transcendence include a promise to leave the Conditioned with a better quality of life. No, Elite One had tasted power again and would push hard for transcendence, even if it meant trampling over others to get it. He saw that now. What would it mean for others? The Indigenes, the Conditioned—it didn’t matter. Tanya would take it all.

  She had not picked her ten subjects yet, but her reliance on Simon pointed to her choosing him. Simon would resist any plans she had use his body in this way. But he feared that when the time came, he wouldn’t be asked.

  He could run. To where? He had no money, no accommodation except for the caves.

  Bill might give him refuge. To live as what—a freak in New London? No, he had turned his back on that life when he’d agreed to the first treatment.

  Was he stuck? It felt like it. But maybe he could still turn Tanya off her idea to piggyback. How, he didn’t know. At least he still had her trust.

  An unenthusiastic Simon watched the monitors covering a three-square kilometre radius of bare land. Before they had built the environ, few trespassers had ventured into their monitored area. But in recent months, since their emergence and increased activity with the environ, their activities had drawn the attention of groups of Indigenes and people who had banded together. Simon perked up when he saw one group stood close to the boundary line marked by the large boulders. They wore magnification glassed and appeared to be watching the environ.

  Simon turned to the other two on duty. ‘I need to check the machine, take some readings.’

  ‘You’re not supposed to leave your post,’ said one.

  ‘I won’t be long.’ He picked up a scanner for recording data and waved it at the other two. ‘I’m worried about power fluctuations. Cover for me.’

  The pair shrugged then went back to monitoring the screens with a similar lack of interest to him.

  Simon ran all the way to the environ where he unlocked the door with his thumbprint and slipped inside. He closed the door and removed the scanner from his bag. He ran a quick diagnostic on the containment field and the machine. Everything was within normal safety parameters, just as he’d expected. To the rear of the environ was a second access door. This one wasn’t within the camera’s visual range. Simon opened it a crack and observed the prying eyes peeking over the top of the boulders.

  He suspected they were part of the rogue groups Bill had mentioned. Their mission: to destroy the Elite and Conditioned, according to Bill. Simon smirked at the irony; it was far more likely Tanya would beat them to that honour. While Tanya and the rest of the Elite saw no threat in these groups, Simon had worked with the ITF long enough to know a quiet group was never an idle group. He’d witnessed how fast things had turned against the Indigenes when the board members had discovered Serena’s existence. All they needed was motive. While he didn’t know what this group wanted beyond watching the GS, he refused to wait for them to make their move.

  To walk up to the group wearing a white robe would be a stupid move. To assume he could talk to them, human to human, was an even more ridiculous idea. Simon considered mind mapping. The device had many levels and types of experience recorded on it. He could mind map the skills of a negotiator on to his brain.

  But the device was all the way back in the cave.

  He closed and secured the rear door.

  Simon gathered up his things, left the environ through the main entrance and returned to the caves. He found the bored Conditioned pair where he’d left them, still watching the screens. Simon looked at the images. He no longer saw the group on the monitor. A wolf had wandered inside the zone and was sniffing at the ground.

  The pair looked up at Simon. He waved the scanner at them. ‘I’m reading some slight anomalies but I’m losing my ability to decipher what it means. I need to do a fresh map of an electrician on to my mind so I can do something about it.’

  One of the Conditioned sighed. ‘How long do you need in case one of the Elite asks?’

  ‘No more than an hour. Tops.’

  He reckoned that would be enough time to meet with the group and return.

  Simon hopped up on to the platform and followed the left tunnel past one of the access points to the staging room to a new open-plan area. This was where the doctors worked and the location of the laboratories. A tunnel ran straight. To the left was a tunnel leading to the Conditioned’s accommodation. He ignored it and followed the straight tunnel to a new area smaller than the first with just three doors to his left. He entered the last room, with a long bench against the wall, where they kept most of their equipment.

  The mind-mapping device sat on the bench, hooked up to a monitor and power source. Simon scrolled through the list of skills on screen and found what he needed. He slipped the lattice cap made of silicone on his head. It’s web-like pattern held several connection points. He initiated the process from the monitor and felt a jolt in his brain as the skills of negotiator flooded his mind. Other skills he already had, electrician and geotechnician, lessened to accommodate the new skill. After, he would need to redo both skills sets and remove the negotiator skill.

  Simon disconnected and wiped the memory logs before leaving the room for his own. He slipped inside his private space, which held little more than a bed and chest of drawers, and opened a drawer of the chest nestled in one corner. He pulled out what remained of his wardrobe as a human. Tanya had thought it trivial for him to hold on to his human past, but Simon hadn’t been ready to give up on his old life.

  He opened his backpack and stuffed what clothes he needed into it. He then placed the scanner on top.

  Simon left his room and nearly had a heart attack when he ran into Tanya.

  Her sharp gaze eyed his backpack. ‘Where are you going?’

&nb
sp; ‘The machine is showing an anomalous reading. I just wanted to check it out, make sure everything’s okay.’

  ‘I’ll come with you.’

  ‘No!’

  Tanya looked at him, surprised.

  ‘I mean, it’s probably nothing. We get glitches occasionally. I don’t expect to be long.’

  Tanya narrowed her gaze. He took some comfort knowing she couldn’t read his mind.

  ‘Be back in ten minutes. There’s a group hanging around just outside our camera’s range.’

  ‘I will.’

  Simon ran out. There wasn’t enough time to learn the group’s motives. He would have to settle for giving them a message. He ran to the environ, locked the door and dressed in a pair of trousers and a white shirt. His skin was not at translucent as the Indigenes, so he hoped he could pass as human.

  He stole out of the rear of the environ, sniffing the air. The wolf still roamed the vicinity and was probably being watched by the pair monitoring the screens. He ran fast to the edge of the perimeter where the cameras could not reach. He hoped in his new attire and this far out, the group would mistake him for another human.

  He sniffed the air again and picked up on the group’s scent. He climbed over one boundary boulder farther back and approached their group.

  A man in his thirties spoke to what appeared to be an all-human group.

  One man poked the leader in the shoulder and pointed at Simon. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘They sent me from another city,’ said Simon. ‘Am I late?’

  ‘Which city?’ The leader narrowed his eyes. ‘How did you get here?’

  ‘New Singapore. And by car. I parked it out of sight. We’re close to their property.’

  He nodded to the environ and caves.

  The leader hissed. ‘They don’t own anything.’

  Simon didn’t have much time. Tanya expected him back in less than eight minutes. ‘I have a message for you, from my group.’

  The leader folded his arms. ‘Yeah? And what’s that?’

  ‘The peace treaty is a good thing and we should preserve it.’

  ‘The treaty is bullshit. Are you from the ITF?’

  ‘No, I’m from New Singapore. I told you.’

  ‘And how did you know we’d be here?’ said the leader.

  ‘We have eyes everywhere.’

  The leader nodded to the environment. ‘Even on that?’

  ‘Yes,’ Simon lied.

  ‘So what are the freaks doing in there exactly?’

  ‘We’re not worried. It’s nothing that will harm you.’ The leader stared at him, prompting Simon to add, ‘or me.’

  ‘How can you be sure?’

  ‘I just know, trust me. Please go back to your groups and tell them to stand down. There’s nothing going on here.’

  ‘Except you’re here telling me to go, and I don’t even know who the hell you are.’ The leader stepped forward and grabbed a fistful of Simon’s white shirt. ‘You tell your ITF buddies and Indigene lovers we can’t be bought with lies. The treaty serves only the Indigenes and the GS humans, and this is our chance to weaken their hold on this world. Put it back in the hands of its rightful owners.’

  ‘The treaty is a good thing,’ said Simon.

  The leader twisted his shirt more. ‘If you don’t want a busted nose, get the hell out of here and go back to wherever you came from.’ He let go. ‘We know what you are. You can’t fool us.’

  Simon stepped back when one of the larger men came closer. He’d hated violence as a human. He hated it even more as a Conditioned.

  The large man grabbed him and pinned his arms behind his back while another man punched him in the stomach. One blow wasn’t enough to hurt him, but several were. Simon groaned and doubled over. He waited for the man to run out of steam.

  Simon coughed and crawled away from the retreating, laughing group. The men didn’t follow. He got to his feet and climbed over one boulder, hidden from view. Stumbling, he made it back to the environ. Inside, he undressed and put on his robe, but not before he examined the multiple bruises beginning to form. The Conditioned could heal fast, but not as fast as the Indigenes. Simon would need to keep his bruises hidden until they healed.

  His return to the caves took longer than his trip out. Inside, he was surprised to find Tanya waiting alone at the monitors. The pair of Conditioned was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘What were you doing out there?’

  ‘I was monitoring the power fluctuations; I told you.’

  Tanya shook her head and pointed to the hidden area where he had met the men. ‘No, there. I saw you climb over the boulder. What were you doing?’

  ‘I saw an opportunity to convince them the treaty is good for Exilon 5. More important, it offers us the same protection as the Indigenes.’

  Tanya released a puff of air. ‘The treaty means nothing to us. We no longer involve ourselves in human matters. All that matters is transcendence and when we reach the final stage, a human-Indigene treaty won’t matter to anyone. We will have transcended our human bodies. Nothing can stop us.’

  ‘But what about the Conditioned? What will happen to us?’ said Simon.

  Tanya walked away and Simon winced from the pain of his beating.

  ‘The Conditioned must learn that not everything is free. At some point, they will have to earn their place in this world.’

  Simon stared after Tanya as his last hope for a better life slipped away. If the Elite transcended, there would be nothing to stop others from taking the Conditioned down. The Elite had protected them throughout their changes, passed down strength and resilience to their charges. But since the environ had been built, Simon had seen no further effort made to protect them, especially from Tanya,

  As a slower moving Tanya disappeared around a corner at the back of the raised platform, Simon vowed to stop this transcendence from happening.

  Tanya wanted more power. He would start there.

  25

  Bill was being his usual stubborn, silent self. How dare he tell her what she felt or didn’t feel? Or that she should abandon their home to work out what she wanted? She knew her own mind.

  But on the ride back, while a tense Bill pretended to do work on his DPad, she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said. Yes, she wanted to know what this all meant for her. She’d felt unsettled for years now, and even gone so far as to hide her Indigene skills. But as the problems with the rogue groups mounted and the GS increased their activities, her instincts were at their strongest.

  The car swapped the undeveloped landscape and new building sites for the developed metropolis of New London. Bill still pretended to work. She’d seen him pissed off before, but never this angry.

  ‘You’re acting like you’re done with me.’ She watched for his reaction, unable to read his mind. Something she was glad for, because she didn’t want to know Bill’s thoughts during one of his silent treatments. ‘Are you ever going to talk to me?’

  His lips, a thin, white line, twitched. ‘Of course.’

  ‘So why the silent treatment?’

  Bill sighed. ‘I’m working.’

  She hated this distance between them. She could usually get him to drop the silence with a joke or a laugh, but lately not much worked.

  Her denial of her Indigene side had put a wedge between them. Bill was right. She needed to deal with it if they were to get past it. But Laura worried that getting past it might not include Bill. She had to know.

  ‘How long do I have to decide this?’

  Bill shifted in his seat, not taking his eyes off the screen. ‘I need you gone as soon as possible. I can’t stand this any more.’

  She touched his arm, feeling his tension lift a fraction. ‘Bill, look at me.’

  ‘I can’t.’ His voice cracked. ‘If I do, I’ll change my mind.’

  The car arrived back at their apartment and parked outside. Laura stayed in the car, determined to get through to her pig-headed husband.

  ‘Bill, l
ook at me.’

  He huffed out a breath and looked at her. She saw tears in his eyes and the sight almost broke her.

  ‘I don’t have to go yet,’ she whispered.

  He rested his head against the seat, keeping his soft gaze on her. ‘Yes, you do.’

  ‘I could leave this evening.’

  Bill closed his eyes for a moment. He reached for her and brought her hand to his cheek. ‘I don’t want to spoil our good memories. This has to be it.’

  Laura snapped her hand back. ‘Stop saying that. I’m only going for a while, just to sort things out.’

  ‘No, you need to deal with your feelings, like I must.’ She heard the new break in his voice and almost changed her mind about going. ‘If you decide that you don’t want me any more—’

  Her heart thumped against her ribcage. She leaned forward and held his face with both hands. ‘I will always want you.’

  ‘You’ve been unhappy for a while and I’ve been ignoring it.’ He pulled her hands away. ‘When I saw you with Stephen, you looked so natural.’

  ‘I haven’t been unhappy with you. True, I’ve been repressing my Indigene side, but so what? That doesn’t mean this is the end.’

  Laura swallowed back a lump in her throat.

  ‘I don’t know what this means.’ Bill stared at his hands, which still held hers. ‘Whatever happens, I’ll accept it. I won’t hold you back from the life you need.’

  ‘You’re what I need.’

  ‘I love to hear you say that, but you need more. Please, Laura, don’t make this more difficult than it is.’

  Laura pulled her hands back a second time and slumped in her seat. ‘How long do I have?’

  ‘The sooner you leave the better. I can leave the car for you.’

  ‘That won’t be necessary.’

  Laura used what little time they had together to look at Bill, to commit his face and the sound of his voice, even the smell of him, to memory.

  She nodded, dried her tears and opened the door. ‘I’ll be out by the time you’re finished work. Will you explain to Julie that I’m taking a few days off?’