Genetic Drift

by Martin Schulte

  She grabbed the Troll’s leg. It stopped walking and Hope maintained her grasp. There was a transaction in process between Hope and the Troll but it did not stop Quill from worrying. The Troll was standing in front of him. “It would be so easy right now,” Quill said as he raised his blade next to the Troll’s head. “It would be so easy to just get rid of you,” he turned his blade, reflecting the light from the lounge.

  “Stop it Quill. Let Hope do this,” Maddie whispered. Quill huffed and lowered his blade but kept a tight grip on the hilt.

  Hope let go of the Troll’s leg. She came to her feet and the Troll just stood there. Quill was still ready to strike at the slightest movement. “It wants to speak with Rho,” Hope said as she straightened herself out.

  “Let’s introduce Rho,” Maddie said, and let Rho know to prepare itself. She walked around Quill to the Troll, putting herself between the two. She extended her hand and touched the Troll.

  I am Rho.

  Another voice entered Maddie’s head.

  Rho, the queen mother has given the directives that most have followed. You might think that we are all drones incapable of making our own choices but you are sadly mistaken. Not all of us have consumed our vessels without remorse. Their memories are no longer theirs but they are not forgotten.

  Maddie listened to Rho’s reply.

  Being, the queen mother attacks without remorse and smothers any type of individuality. If the queen mother continues with the current directives, we will all perish. We will no longer have a sense of self. We could have easily lived side-by-side with the humans but the queen mother decided to eliminate them. Why would the queen mother think any differently about us, as individuals?

  The other voice responded without hesitation.

  Maybe you misunderstand me. I am going to join you against the queen mother. But I am not doing it to help you. I am doing it for me. I want you to understand that we do not mindlessly follow the queen mother. Given no other options, the queen mother’s lead is all we have. Rather than telling others to fight against it, perhaps the strategy would be to join you in order to have a life similar to the vessels before they were assimilated by the queen mother.

  Rho responded.

  Very well, I have considered your advice and with this new information, it is valid. I must find the computer interface to convince others to join us.

  The other voice was quick to reply.

  Follow me and I will lead you to where you want to go.

  Maddie’s hand released the Troll and she immediately turned to Quill. “He is going to help us,” she said as she pushed her open hand toward his blade. Quill lowered the weapon as the Troll turned around.

  “How do you know that he is not setting us up?” Quill asked.

  “How do you know he is not going to help us?” Maddie snapped back. She told Quill, “You can either stay here and do nothing or you can follow it to where we need to go. Either way, Quill, I don’t care what you do. I’ve had enough of this ‘everything is going to kill me’ mentality of yours.” Maddie turned around and walked out of the door. Hope and Jay were already following the Troll. Quill stood in place to think about what Maddie had said.

  “I am always ready for something to go wrong,” he muttered as he followed them out of the door.

  DAY 285

  THE INTERFACE

  INTERFACE CHAMBER

  Ben saw a door as he walked up to the next level. The door was open and inviting. He signaled to Marcus and Ethen to slow down and be cautious. Ben approached the door slowly. He peeked through the entryway and looked to the left and then to the right. The room was empty. The room was very empty. The walls were the same as the rest of the fortress, plated metal stacked from floor to ceiling. There were no objects in the room except two poles that extended from the ground.

  Ben entered the room with his gun at the ready. Marcus was quick to follow and Ethen maintained a watch on the door that they had entered. Ben tactically moved toward the poles and inspected them. They were comprised of the same metal as the walls and contained the same blue fluid-filled tubes that they had noticed on the walls before. “I wonder where this leads?” Ben asked Marcus as he waved for him to come look at the poles.

  Marcus walked over to Ben and looked at the rods coming up from the floor. He ran his fingers along the blue lines, “It’s the same tubing that we saw in the hall. But I don’t think this room is the same as the last one.” Ben looked at the other pole. His thoughts were the same as Marcus’.

  “Do you think there is another area where they are growing more creatures?” Ben asked Marcus.

  “Perhaps, I think we should go check,” Marcus replied.

  Ben looked around and saw another door opposite to where Ethen was standing. Ben pointed to the door, “That looks like a good place to start,” he called to the stairwell, “Ethen, we’re moving on.”

  Ethen dropped his guard and started to move toward the other door. He joined Marcus and Ben as the three approached the door. It slid open and they all raised their guns.

  “Troll!” shouted Ethen and he began to unleash bullets into the blue being. Seeing the Troll, Marcus and Ben shot without hesitation. The bullets penetrated the Troll’s body and head as it started to slump to the floor. As the Troll collapsed, Jay and Hope saw the firing men and ducked for cover.

  “Stop it, stop it, stop it,” Hope called out, “stop it!” It took little time for Maddie to jump in front of the Troll to shield it from the fire.

  “Hold fire!” Marcus dropped his aim and placed his hand in front of Ben and Ethen’s view to get them to stop.

  Once the firing line stopped the barrage, Maddie sped to the Troll’s side. She placed her hand on the Troll. Rho communicated.

  Declare the status of your being.

  The Troll’s voice came back.

  Unable to heal self. Unable to continue life functions. Remember, we were made from one but we are not the same.

  The Troll went silent and limp. Maddie let go of it and turned to Ben. “He was with us,” she hollered at him, “he was helping us.” Ben put up his hands in disbelief.

  “When I’m walking and I see an alien, I’m not going to ask if it’s my friend. Since they all attack, I think it was the right thing to do,” Ben said. Hope went over to the Troll as Jay followed her.

  Maddie told Ben, “Things have changed, there are Trolls who are going to join us. Not all of them want to kill us. They just didn’t think there was any other option.”

  Ben looked down at Hope and the Troll, “How are we supposed to know the difference? They all look the same. Big blue aliens. I’m not asking for an I.D., if that is what you’re trying to say.”

  Quill came into the room overhearing the conversation, “That’s what I say, better safe than dead.”

  Maddie watched Quill walk toward Ben and said, “Even Quill didn’t attack the Troll and he tries to kill everything.” She faced Ben, “Then how will you ever know how to tell the difference between the Trolls?”

  “The same way we tell the difference between two armies. They need an identifier, a uniform, something to mark them as on our side,” Marcus said.

  “That’s assuming that any more of those things are going to fight with us,” Ethen interjected.

  Tears started to well up in Hope’s eyes. “The first alien to join us and it didn’t even last 15 minutes. It was kind when we talked to each other,” Hope recalled asking it to fight against the queen mother in the lounge. She turned to Jay and buried her head in his shoulder. She let out her tears and muffled cries as he comforted her.

  “Now that we have that out of the way, what are you all doing here?” Ben asked Maddie and Quill.

  Quill was faster to respond, “Crazy girl here,” he stuck out his thumb and pointed to Maddie, “wanted to follow that thing to this place.” Ben turned his question to Maddie.

  “And why was it bringing you here?”

  Maddie looked around the barren room. Her gaze went past
the two poles protruding from the floor. “That’s the interface,” Rho told her. Her eyes fixated back on the poles.

  “That is why we came here,” Maddie said as she raised her hand and pointed at the poles. Ben, Marcus, and Ethen turned around to look at the rods.

  Marcus said, “Those things? They lead to more of these monsters that the Trolls are releasing. We have to find them and get rid of them before they release more.”

  Maddie shook her head, “From what I have found out, those poles don’t lead to more creatures. They are the interface to the other Trolls. A way of speaking to them.”

  “And how do you know that?” Marcus asked in disbelief.

  “Because they are in my head,” Maddie lifted her finger to her temple. “It has been talking to me since we were at Camp Phoenix. Its name is Rho and this is what we have been trying to find.”

  “So you’re following a voice in your head?” Marcus asked.

  Hope had cleared the tears from her eyes. “It’s more than a voice in our heads,” she said. Ben remembered Hope and Jay from when they arrived at Camp Phoenix.

  “So both of you have voices in your heads?” he asked Hope.

  “I just said that it’s more than that,” Hope scowled.

  Maddie interrupted Hope, “These things inside of us, they heal us, they allow us to communicate with the Trolls. They are also a part of us and talk to us.”

  “And some of them want to help us but we have to tell them that we need help,” Hope added.

  “So you both have this inside of you,” Ben turned to Jay, “and you’re quiet, do you have the same thing?” Ben asked.

  Jay said, “No, I’m here for my sister.” He looked at Hope and then back at Ben.

  “Okay, assuming that they’re not all bad and trying to kill us, why should we believe that going to those poles is going to make things better? For all we know, it’s another way to kill us,” Ben tried to make sense of what he was being told.

  Maddie answered, “I don’t know. All I can say is that the thing inside of me, inside of us, wants to live. It doesn’t want to be subject to the queen mother.”

  Ethen thought Maddie’s story was farfetched, “So now there’s a queen?! What other surprises are there? A big, giant ant pile landed on us and we’re supposed to think that everything is going to be okay… because you say so.”

  Maddie was frustrated, “I’m not making this up. I’m telling you all that I know.” She sighed and then asked, “Do you think I would be here if I didn’t think there was a chance to make things better?”

  Marcus stepped in, “I think there’s a lot going on that we don’t know. Quill, what do you think? You’ve been with them.” Quill looked at Marcus with his dark sunken eyes.

  “There is some truth to what she says. That alien could have tried to attack but the other girl was able to talk to it,” he said.

  Ben was listening and processing the entire conversation. Since he was the General, he knew it was his obligation to direct the course of action. “All I have seen is that we are going to keep fighting until we run out of ammunition. The aliens are hard enough to fight without these new creatures that they have unleashed on us. Maddie, if you need to go to those poles, then we are not going to stop you.”

  Maddie looked at Ben, thankful that he was allowing her to go to the interface. She said, “Thank you,” and walked between Marcus and Ben toward the two poles.

  She positioned herself equidistant between the poles. “Rho, are you ready to do this?” Maddie thought to Rho.

  “I am ready to challenge the queen mother and draw people to our side. Maddie, do not doubt us. We will survive.”

  Maddie spread her feet to shoulder width. She wiped her hands on the sides of her pants. Ben, Marcus, Ethen, Quill, Jay, and Hope all stood in a line behind her, watching. Maddie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her arms raised and went forward. She clasped the poles with her hands and felt a surge of information enter her head.

  The others watched as a huge map of the Earth projected on the wall in front of them. The map filled with red overlying most of the continents displayed as the Earth slowly rotated. Ethen asked, “Do you think that’s alien territory?” Ben looked over toward North America. He saw red over the largest cities.

  “It has to be and it doesn’t look good for us,” Ben said as he continued to stare at the map.

  The information was still flowing through Maddie’s head. Then, it suddenly stopped. Rho had something to say and Maddie heard it.

  Queen mother, I am Rho. I challenge you and your authority as the queen mother.

  PART FOUR:

  SUBVERSION

  DAY 285

  THE REGAL RESPONSE

  INTERFACE CHAMBER

  Those little words were followed by silence. Rho’s plan to change the directives, Maddie thought, was going to be left unchallenged. But her thoughts were proven wrong when Omega’s voice boomed in Maddie’s head.

  I will not be challenged by anything. Especially by something that has been sentient for a short time, such as you.

  The queen mother continued to scold Rho.

  Body 1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-4, you have failed to follow your directives. I see you are with other humans. This is not in your directive. I command you to follow what you have been instructed. My will is the will of us all.

  Rho knew that the queen mother could see them. It was not going to listen to its demands.

  I am not Body 1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-4, I am Rho. I am your equal, if not greater. You do not speak for the will of us all and I will not follow your directives. You intend to kill my host and me with it. Therefore, I am calling to the other beings and ask them to join me as individuals. To live as the hosts had intended to live on this new planet.

  The queen mother decided that it had heard enough from Rho. An alarm sounded in the room. An unintelligible voice could be heard in between the sounding siren. Marcus grabbed Ben and Ethen, “This place is going to blow!” He remembered chaos at the bunker and the urgency to evacuate the building filled his body. Marcus held his grip as he started to run for the stairwell. “We have to go!” he yelled. He let his grasp slip as he made way for the stairwell. He made it to the door and looked back, “Come on, come on,” he tried to usher the others to the stairs.

  Maddie was still holding on to the interface. The words, Auto-Destruction sequence has been activated. Thirty seconds until detonation, streamed through her head.

  “Rho, you have to stop the auto-destruct. We won’t survive it,” Maddie told Rho.

  The alarm and the voice suddenly stopped. Marcus was at the top of the stairwell. “This is it.” He fell down to the floor and covered his head. The others slid to a stop and mimicked Marcus. He tensed his body as he prepared for the explosion.

  “I have disabled the auto-destruct, Maddie. Now we can focus on the interface. Tell our allies that we are safe.”

  Maddie’s eyes were closed as she announced from the interface, “Rho turned the auto-destruct off, we are all safe.” Marcus eased his body. The scars on his back felt the burn of the release. Ben got to his feet and went back to watching the map. The others were slower to rise and took the time to dust themselves off. They walked over and took their places next to Ben, all except for Marcus.

  Marcus lay on the floor, his slow breathing feeling cool on his arms. He felt lucky. He didn’t die, again. He collected himself and made it to his feet. His back was burning and he reached into his pocket for his painkillers. There was nothing there. He patted both of his front pockets, then his back pockets, then his side pockets on his legs. “Crap, where did they go?” he asked but nobody was around. He searched the floor as his back burned and he couldn’t find his container. His choice was either to go back down to the room with the creatures or just live with it.

  Marcus decided to stay. Each step caused the burn to intensify but he wasn’t going to let it stop him. He shuffled his feet across the floor with each labored step. He winced as he took his place ne
xt to Ben. Ben was staring at the map and was too busy to notice that Marcus was having difficulty.

  Rho told the queen mother.

  You will not be able to destroy us that easily. It will take more than a simple command.

  The stern voice of the queen mother entered Maddie’s head.

  I will come down on you with a force you can never imagine. I know where you are and I will destroy you.

  A message from the queen mother came over the sound system that had sounded the alarm. It spoke in plain English, “Humans, if you follow this being then you will die.”

  Quill turned around in place scanning the entire room with his blade at the ready. He was trying to find the source of the voice. “Who was that?” he called out, looking for his potential attacker. Marcus and Ethen joined Quill in scanning the room as Ben maintained his focus.

  Hope walked to position herself behind Maddie. Jay followed Hope, keeping his vigilance to the possibility of being attacked. Hope reached for Maddie and touched her. “Kappa and I are here with you,” Hope entered the conversation in Maddie’s head. Maddie continued her hold on the interface poles.

  What is this? The queen mother spoke through the interface. You already have others with you? You are more dangerous than I gave you credit for.

  The interface terminated and the feeling of the information flow ceased in Maddie’s head. The map still displayed on the wall as Maddie let go of the two vertical poles. Her brow was dripping with sweat. She used her forearm to wipe the sweat away from her forehead. “Hope, you shouldn’t have done that,” she told Hope.