Xeno Sapiens

by Rena Marks

  With a push of a button, the platform under the body raised and twisted so the body was facedown. “This is so we can rotate them easily. Notice how much some of them weigh? It would make for some back-breaking labor if we had to do it all by hand.”

  “What is this?” Amanda asked, pressing in some small indentations at his hip. “It’s not variations of his coloring like the other striations. This is different. Is it scarring? How in the world did a body get scarred?”

  Director Meade shrugged. “We wished to see if there were any brain levels recognizing pain. Unfortunately, as you know, there was no brain activity.”

  It didn’t seem to make any sense to try to cause pain to a body that had no life.

  “Let’s move on. This one is an Essassani, known in the early days of alien abductions as The Greys. According to ancient legend, they genetically mutated themselves to the point where they could no longer reproduce. Because they could only survive by cloning, they traveled to Earth every so often, looking for another species to “share” their DNA. Of course, if these legends were true, I can’t imagine we wouldn’t already be bred with other species as the intelligence of these ones are beyond that of ours. Cloning? Surely they would have figured out how to interbreed. Another anomaly is the ability to absorb nutrients through the skin. The original group fed off human and animal vital fluids by rubbing a ‘liquid protein’ formula on their bodies. It was then absorbed through the skin. Because of that, their oral orifices became smaller. This one can eat, thanks to his human genes. But with this one, we used a genetic overlay process to merge the Essassani genes with those of humans. It was a long complicated process and this is the only one we’ve ever been able to recreate. Hence, you can see how important it is that the revival work. It may take us many more centuries to create another one of these successful bodies.”

  Robyn barely saw the poor creature hooked to countless tubes. His eyes were taped, his mouth was taped, and all that caught her eye was a thick, unruly thatch of glossy black hair.

  But Meade had already moved on. “This one appeared to be a predominant race of the Atlantean city. There were a lot who contained this type of DNA in various mutations, so we believe the city was breeding. This DNA was four times diluted, so Atlantis existed at least two hundred years. Perhaps this race, which we call Pleiadian, was one of the first to cross the portal. Or”—he gave a short bark of laughter—“they were an extremely attractive lot and in high demand. Blond and light skinned due to lack of sunlight. Apparently requested quite a bit by the women of the village.” He laughed maniacally.

  By the tightening of Amanda’s lips, she found him just as inappropriate.

  * * * * *

  It was difficult to tear herself away from the laboratory of horrors. But truth be told, it was impossible not to want to look, to delve in. Robyn wondered what kind of person that made her.

  But at six, Dr. Amanda caught her eye, and she acknowledged with a small nod. Together they made their way to the eating quarters.

  A solid case of nerves hit Robyn as they approached the dining room. There was a low, steady drone of nervous excitement buzzing in the room from so many voices talking at once. In addition to the four main scientists, there was a team of lab technicians, proudly wearing their white coats.

  The clinking of a spoon against a glass silenced the room.

  “I’d like to welcome our new recruits,” Director Thomas Meade said. “They’re going to help us make history.”

  After the clapping, Robyn and Amanda took their seats. “Thank you,” Amanda said. “This will be an exciting venture.”

  Robyn studied the various faces around the room. One of the lab techs sneered, muttering something to the man next to him. His partner guffawed softly.

  “Bobby? Did you have something to contribute?” Director Meade’s face had changed in an instant, freezing into a sneer that surprisingly, closely matched the one of the lab tech.

  They were related, Robyn realized. On top of everything else, she’d have to delve into the relationships of everyone here just to sort out who stood where.

  “Uh, no, sir. I apologize for the disruption.”

  Properly pacified, Director Meade’s face changed back into the pleasant mask he wore just a minute earlier. He continued talking as if nothing happened.

  Robyn’s heart pounded. He was certifiably crazy, and she and Amanda were trapped with them. What had they gotten themselves into?

  “Doctors, you have one week to study, and then we’ll plan the revival for a week from today. The plans have been emailed to your individual PCs in your suites.” Thomas leaned back, pink hands clasped over his protruding belly.

  “Let’s eat!”

  Chapter Four

  It took a week to study the notes she’d hacked from various sources. A week of careful planning and preparation—even pleasant teamwork from the rest of the staff. Not that Robyn let her guard down at any time during this week.

  But now, this was it. It was time.

  The doors of the operating room slid open. Robyn felt her mouth suddenly go dry. One by one, the rest of the scrubbed aides stepped in.

  “All right then,” Amanda said. “We’re ready.”

  Robyn took her spot near the computers lined up along the wall. She was fine with not staring at the dead bodies and blood during the birthing—or revival—process. Either way one called it.

  She still couldn’t believe she was in on this groundbreaking experiment. Alien hybrids, merged with computer brains. A kickstart into cybernetics. The lab was right. There were endless possibilities. Sure, it was possible to grow organs, even whole limbs. But this? This could be the breakthrough of re-growing brains. Hell, it could be the breakthrough for reviving the dead one day.

  She and Amanda had spent all week studying and going over notes.

  Amanda’s voice came over the loudspeaker. “Four subjects—test group named Esson Four—all measure in at normal life support range. Body temperature ranges of ninety-seven to ninety-nine degrees. Standby for brain wire hookups.”

  The medics went to work on the various bodies. In addition to poking micro needles through various muscles, the medics also began to strap the bodies down.

  Robyn didn’t remember this in the plans. She noticed Amanda’s look of confusion and realized it hadn’t been.

  It took a few minutes before Amanda began again. “Low voltage electricity to the brain in three—two—one.”

  At the nod, Robyn sent the same start to the computers inside their brains.

  Brain waves came across the screen, flatlined at first, then gradually picking up into faint waves. “Come on,” she whispered. “Come on.”

  “We can’t keep the current much longer,” Amanda warned. “The tissue is going to fry.”

  “Not yet,” Robyn said. They were close, so close to becoming living, functioning people. Brain waves would jump once, then flatline.

  “I need to start the countdown to turn it off,” Amanda said, her voice stressed. “Destroying the brain tissue will leave them worthless vegetables. No different than robots in organic bodies.”

  “We’re almost there,” Robyn gritted.

  “It’s too much. Voltage to go out in six seconds. Six—five—four—three—“

  “We’re up!” Robyn cut the voltage herself with a quick push of the emergency cut off.

  “Brain activity is online,” Amanda said.

  The medics began clapping.

  “We’re not safe yet,” Robyn warned. Something was wonky with the brain monitors. The images coming through her computer were bursts of waves. The activity began zipping across the screen.

  The people strapped in rows began to scream, the bodies jerking in terror.

  “What the hell?” Amanda said. “Is there live current going into the muscles?”

  “Negative,” Robyn said. “It looks like…cell memory. In the brainwaves, therefore the muscles are contracting in self defense.”

  “Cell mem
ory is not a proven theory,” Dr. Chen snapped.

  Amanda swore. “How the hell can that be? Computers, thirty percent sedative in gas form.”

  When the bodies were still in an unconscious sleep, Robyn left her station to observe. They’d twisted so violently, many had rope burns. Blood dripped across the bodies from some dislodging their electricity conducting needles.

  “Was it a success?” Behind his mask, Director Meade looked eager.

  Robyn glared at him. “We won’t know until they awaken from their little nap. I just placed them in a medically induced coma while we monitor the brainwaves and give them time to adjust.”

  He swore. “We just had them awake! Why did you put them under?” he demanded, giving a nasty stare to Amanda.

  Her brows lifted haughtily. “Do you want dead revivals? The trauma was too much for their fragile mental state.”

  “That’s what the computers are for.”

  “Not necessarily,” Robyn said, coming to Amanda’s defense. “The computers can’t take over for the human brain. It can only assist it.”

  “That’s not what the experiment was conducted for.”

  “It’s all the technology we have at the moment. Any more than that, and you kill the test subjects.”

  He looked down at one of the male forms and then spoke to Dr. Baratov. “Perhaps it would have been wiser to start over. Of course, the government funding demanded we exhaust all efforts with this batch first…”

  Dr. Baratov raised his eyes. “You are aware of the bonus Crested Ute will receive for not racking up the additional expense of scrapping this project to begin anew.”

  Robyn stared, watching Meade’s cunning change of personality. His eyes barely flicked to her.

  “Let me know when they wake,” he said. With a motion, he signaled the rest of the medics to leave. The lab technicians looked at each other in bewilderment. Then they followed suit.

  Robyn strode to her computer.

  “What are you doing?” Amanda asked, dejectedly.

  “Simply making sure none of the records I hacked can be traced back here,” Robyn said. “They hired me to hack into various laboratories to find secret notes on similar experiments.” How could she tell Amanda what she was really feeling? The fact that she didn’t trust anyone and wanted to watch the report they sent to the government? Amanda was a doctor. She’d think she was crazy if she said something didn’t feel right.

  But Amanda muttered, lost in her own thoughts. “They strapped them down.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “They strapped them down for the revival. It’s almost as if they knew what might happen.” She winced, looking up at the recording camera that just caught her words.

  “It’s okay,” Robyn assured her. “I was actually looping the sequence so they wouldn’t know all of what we’re doing in here.”

  Amanda stared shrewdly at her. “Something’s off.”

  “Agreed. Strapping down was not in the revival notes, yet they all seemed to know to do it. Which makes me assume we received a different set than everyone else.”

  With a punch of a button, Robyn completed her task and turned her chair toward her. “I just realized—sadly, during the revival—that you and I signed contracts for silence and agreed to payouts of…well, mine is twenty million credits. But those are payable at the end of the six month mission. It dawned on me that it was done that way for a reason.” She took a deep breath. “Once credits are deposited into our accounts, they can be hacked out. But there are small traces that would show upon enough digging. I’m a computer hacker, and they knew that. So what’s the best way to ensure a hack can’t show the truth? By never depositing in the first place. That way, there’s nothing to correct out of the transaction. If this doesn’t go well, they can easily dispose of us, call it an accident and say we were lost before ever arriving. That they’d assumed at the time we’d changed our minds. And that’s assuming we didn’t keep our confidentiality clause and told one person of our intentions to accept the contract. If we did keep our word, they never need say anything.”

  “I didn’t tell anyone,” Amanda said. She wouldn’t. She was too strait-laced and would adhere to her contractual terms. “What the hell did we get ourselves into?”

  “To make sure the ending to my grim scenario doesn’t happen, I just inserted a timed deletion into the computer, which will destroy all original notes and records of the entire project. Especially those which we were not privy to. If they do threaten us in any way, it will be our checkmate.”

  “They’ll have paper copies, along with samples,” Amanda said.

  “Yes. But it will be a pain in the ass to go through all that.” Hell, if she discovered the source of the location of the hard files, she would burn it to the ground. She’d already begun hacking files to discover where the original samples were being kept.

  “Why do you suppose they knew to strap the bodies down?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “But I’m going to find out.”

  * * * * *

  “Good morning.” Amanda looked up, her eyes red and her normally tidy bun at the nape of her neck messy with curling tendrils escaping. Robyn handed her a cup of coffee.

  “Have you been up all night?”

  “Yes.” She dropped her voice to a whisper, and deliberately turned her back to the camera. “I woke one up.”

  “You what? Hold on.”

  Robyn went to the computer and looped the feed, setting the microphones to earlier white noise. Lord, no one would ever suspect such an old fashioned move unless it was used too often and the watchers of the videos actually remembered the simple conversations and routine exams were being repeated.

  “Okay, talk.”

  “They weren’t brain dead individuals. I mean, they were brain dead.” She winced. “But they weren’t brain dead from the get go. They were once alive. Someone wiped out their memories and shut down their brains purposely.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  Amanda nodded. “Very. All the evidence points to it. Come with me.”

  She walked her to where someone lay on a table.

  “Their muscles are paralyzed to keep them still while they acclimate to existing life. They can hear us, and are aware, but that’s about it. This one is of Zetan DNA. His eyes, when open, are glossy pools of black. Excellent night vision. None of them have names, just numbers and letters. His is EKO-2.”

  “Such a mouthful,” Robyn murmured.

  “I decided to change their names.”

  “You did?”

  “I call this one Steele for the beautiful sheen in his silvery skin.” The combination of gray skin from a Zetan and the flesh tones of a human did make for a more silver-like tone.

  “He’s beautiful,” Robyn said, running her fingers across his bicep.

  “And he can hear you,” Amanda reminded wryly.

  Robyn snatched her hand back. “I forgot. Sorry,” she mumbled to the man who stared straight ahead. God, she’d been fondling him like a teenager.

  Amanda kneeled down to speak near his ear. “Steele, this is Dr. Robyn Saraven. She’s in charge of keeping the computer inside your brain healthy. If you have any pain in your head, she’s the one to take care of it.” Amanda turned to her. “I imagine when they are roused fully, they’d like to name themselves.” She knelt down to Steele. “So if you don’t like to be called Steele, it’s totally fixable,” she said. “From the DNA records, Steele has Zetan DNA. But there are different types. His DNA comes from a larger species, known for their brute strength. Hence the muscles you were just fondling.”

  Robyn felt her cheeks burn hotly.

  “He also tends toward aggression though that was a factor that should have been weeded out during the genetic screening. If you can track his brainwaves, we’ll be able to see if there are any tendencies.”

  “There will always be tendencies,” Robyn said. “It’s cell memory. But it will be easy for him to repress the aggression w
ith the adjustments they made.”

  “In the meantime, how do we keep the fact that they are conscious from the rest?”

  “I have an idea,” Robyn said. “We’ll move all four subjects…”

  “Renegade, Steele, Beast, and Pax.”

  “—into separate rooms.”

  “Why?”

  “We’re going to lie and tell the scientists they need solitary confinement. Perhaps make up a sickness. That will keep everyone away while we figure out what we’re going to do.”

  Amanda chewed her lip. “It’s two of us. Two of us against the Global Government and Crested Utilitarian Laboratories, the largest company in the world.”

  Robyn smiled grimly. “Three of us if you count my alter ego, Eve.”

  “How will we keep this from them?” Amanda asked.

  “Leave it up to me,” Robyn said, going to her computers to research. “I’ll send out an email that we need a meeting with them. And I’ll use a contamination alert to keep all personnel away from Level One.”

  * * * * *

  Robyn entered the conference room, alone this time.

  “What is going on? Where is Dr. Becker?”

  “She’s with the test subjects. They’re on the verge of flat lining again, but we think we may have figured out why.”

  Director Meade leaned in, his beady eyes growing rounder with excitement. “Sit, sit.”

  She took the seat at the head of the table while the rest of them opened their lap-pads to take notes. “During my research,” she dropped the word to a whisper, watching Meade’s eyes brighten at the realization of her hacking skills, “I discovered that it’s possible the hormones of the males are off. Specifically, since our test subjects are all male, testosterone. Because of the way they were created, transdermal genetic layering, they are leaching hormones that they need from others. It’s why you couldn’t revive them in the past. All your male counterparts poison them. Their levels are so high, that if we were to release them from the medically induced coma right now, they’d stroke out from the resulting aggression and chemical overload.”