Dr. Kubitz had a hard time believing what he was seeing, but it was obvious now that he was looking at it. “Fascinating,” he whispered, eyes entranced on the screen. “It’s no wonder we didn’t catch it before. Look there—” he pointed at the spot on the screen where two cells touched just after splitting. “The filament pairs that build the cell wall at the moment of mitosis… humans don’t have filament pairs. But it’s so insignificant, I doubt we ever would have noticed. Not without the breadcrumbs.”
“Breadcrumbs?” Avani asked.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, you’re probably right. We wouldn’t have seen it. But I should have caught it. It’s why you hired me.”
“Well sure.” Kubitz smiled playfully. A true smile. The first in what seemed like a lifetime. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
The task was far from finished, but they had a lead. That should help convince Black Suit to give them more time. Something to silence the bureaucrats, anyway. “Now to confirm that all the clones have this mutation. This feels undeniable, but we need to test the rest of them.”
“That makes sense.”
Kubitz leaned his chair back and thought for a moment. “There is the possibility that we’ve simply stumbled upon a previously unknown, but normal mutation.”
Avani nodded, considering the idea. “We need a larger sample size.”
“I’d never get it authorized in time. For now, run the test on this gene against the three clones we have. Then, as a control, we’ll use our own DNA. You’re not a clone right?” Kubitz winked. Avani smiled and shook her head. “This changes everything. This—”
The screens in front of him went dead. The lights flickered off and back on, before plunging the room into total darkness.
Discovery
Dr. Kubitz and Avani sat stunned in the pitch black lab for three heartbeats before either stirred.
“What was that?” Kubitz asked as he rose to his feet.
From the darkness to his left, Avani’s voice replied, “We seem to have lost power.”
“No, listen.” A gentle hum crept through the air under the deafening silence. “The air handlers are still on. Life support is active.” Kubitz fumbled for his comm controls. Static.
“No signal on mine either,” Avani said. Kubitz heard her punching the keys on her device.
“As long as we’re breathing let’s round up Holden and head to the junction. I’d very much like to know if the rest of the station is experiencing issues.”
“They are,” Holden said from the hatch as he flicked on a flashlight. From across the room, Avani jumped and whispered what Kubitz assumed was a Hindi expletive.
Kubitz met Holden in the doorway. “Good work, buddy. Do you have any more?”
“One,” Holden said and dropped a cool metal cylinder into Kubitz’ hand.
“Well, then. Let’s stay together. We’ll find out what’s going on.”
Kubitz flicked his light on. He led the team into the hallway and veered to the right. The junction to the rest of the facility was that direction. His mind jumped to the man in the black suit. He wondered if the man had finally grown impatient. On the crest of their triumph, no less. But Black Suit was a man of his word. Kubitz hoped, anyway. He’d given them a week, so they would have a week. Kubitz didn’t doubt for a second that his team wouldn’t be afforded a single minute more.
Having ruled out the man in the black suit as a culprit his mind went to the next logical step: an attack. Had the clones made it so far into the system? The Core Military Federation had little success in thwarting the enemy’s advance, except at Titan. Most considered even that victory to be pure chance.
By all reports, Titan was the farthest coreward the enemy had traveled, nearly seven years ago. They seemed to have forgotten the home system. Until now, possibly. But he imagined an attack would be noisier. Aside from the low hum of the life support systems and the nervous scuffling of three pairs of shoes, the facility was silent.
“Is it the clones?” Holden asked from behind, echoing Kubitz’ own thoughts.
“I don’t think so. There are alarms for that.” Kubitz made that part up. He could sense the nerves in the young man’s voice and wanted to avoid exciting him further. Kubitz had known Holden for a long time. The young man often overreacted. Ever since he took Holden in, Kubitz had spent a lot of time talking Holden off the ledge, so to speak.
They made their way to the junction without another word. The corridor between their lab and the rest of the station stretched thirty meters across the sleeping lunar surface. Various sizes of pipes and cables traced across the gray silt between the habitats alongside the corridor. Through the glasstic windows, flashes of light glanced across the view ports on the other side.
“You’re right, power’s out over there as well,” Kubitz said.
“Didn’t believe me?”
“It’s not that, it’s just good to know we’re not alone. Avani, is life support still active in the corridor?”
Avani brought the panel next to the hatch to life, the dim screen showing minimal content. The reserve battery power supplied just enough to access basic system commands. “Looks to be. Generators are holding containment, anyway.”
“Good.” Kubitz opened the hatch and stepped through before turning to his team. “Shall we?”
After crossing the thirty quiet meters, Kubitz tried the hatch to the main facility. It didn’t budge. He peered into the small window to see if anyone was nearby. With his hands cupped around his eyes, he looked side to side.
Out of the darkness, a face flashed into view, filling the window. Kubitz jumped back as the face disappeared.
The corridor was silent for a moment. “What w—” Avani started before the locking mechanisms clicked inside the heavy metal hatch.
“Hey pals,” a rotund scientist with a thick northeastern American accent said, scratching his ear. “Glad you’re all good. Just learning what’s goin’ on here. Slagging power’s out.”
“We noticed. All over the station? Looks like everything except life support.”
“Well yeah. Astronomers in section C are losing their minds. Apparently some big event happening somewhere, but they need power to their telescopes.” The scientist shrugged and looked up at Kubitz, impatience written on his flushed face. “We don’t know why, though—why the power’s out, I mean. That’s the worst of it.”
“An attack? Sardaan?”
“Maybe. Dunno. Kinda what I was getting at. We don’t know anything, doc.” He held a sweaty hand out. “Kinnear. Steve. I’m ah, data entry.”
Kubitz grasped Steve’s greasy hand, trying to not show his disgust. “Dr. Mendel Kubitz. What are the next steps?”
“Yeah, I know who you are. Next steps? Great question.” Steve wiped a considerable amount of sweat from his forehead. As he whipped his meaty hand to the side, Kubitz felt a residual spray and worked to hide his disgust. The same sweaty hand jumped to the comm in Steve’s ear before Kubitz could ask another question.
As he listened to one side of Steve’s conversation, Kubitz raised an eyebrow to Avani, which, he soon realized, she couldn’t see in the dim light.
“Alright, here’s the scoop,” Steve said, apparently finished with his call. “Things seem to have gotten a little… ah… political on the home front.” Steve seemed to be waiting for Kubitz to reply. When he didn’t, he sighed and went on. “It’s the slagging social justice warriors, man. They hacked our station. They let us sit around here in the dark for a while before sending in their demands.”
“Demands?” Avani asked.
“Yeah.” Steve scratched his neck. “It’s about you guys. They want you to stop using the clones for tests, or whatever it is you guys are doing over there. They threatened to shut down life support systems in modules one by one.”
Kubitz had wondered when the hostile political climate on Earth would stretch its ugly hands all the way out to Lune. He didn’t love using clones for t
esting, whether or not they were considered human. On Earth, he’d done his part in working to finally eliminate animal testing in the scientific community. All life had certain intrinsic rights.
But wartime was different.
“Look,” Steve continued. “I’m a card-carrying liberal myself and all that, but I say we take those so-called ‘warriors’ and give them a taste of an actual war.”
“Yes, and exactly how much wartime have you seen, Steve?” Kubitz asked, eliciting a snicker from Avani and Holden.
“That’s, ah… hey man, that’s not fair.”
Kubitz waved the comment off. “So what are they doing? We obviously cannot stop the testing—”
“Obviously.”
Kubitz stared at Steve for a long, uncomfortable moment.
“Ah… yeah, we’ve got our top guys on it. It’s just a virus. They’ll be able to—” a light flashed on in the corridor behind him. “Yeah, there we go. Looks like they’re getting systems going now.”
“And how long until our module is restored?” Kubitz asked. When Steve shrugged, he pointed to the earpiece and said, “Ask them.”
Steve glared up at Kubitz, a full head taller than him, and opened his comm. “Hey, that German doctor is asking about his station… oh, is that right?… of course. Alright. Whatever. Above my pay grade.”
“Well?” Avani asked from beside Kubitz.
“Someone upstairs thinks you all are pretty slagging special. They’re working on your module now. Should be up by the time you get back. So you should probably leave now.” Steve turned back down the corridor towards the main lab without another word.
“Something tells me that Steve guy didn’t like you,” Holden said as Kubitz led his team back toward their own module.
“You think?”
“Doctor, do you think we’re in danger here?” Avani asked.
Kubitz pulled the hatch open to their section of the facility. “In what way?”
“This movement from Earth. These activists. Are their threats real? Can they do that?”
“It’s not impossible.” Kubitz stopped in the dim entrance to their facility. The power crept on, starting with the emergency lights in the entrance. “Dr. Sifra, I’ve been called a straight shooter more than once in my life, so I will be clear and honest with you. Make no mistake that we are engaged in a battle on multiple fronts in more ways than you know. These risks were apparent when we began this journey.”
Avani held his gaze for long enough that Holden shifted his weight. As the lights came on overhead and filled the corridor with a clean, white glow, she wiped moisture from her eyes. “I never thought we’d be threatened this close to home.”
Kubitz placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Come what may, we will persevere. They believe in humanity, no matter the form. We are trying to save humanity. We’re not so different. The sooner we sequence the Code, the happier everyone will be.” He glanced around the corridor at the lights. “Now, is everything back to normal?”
Avani pulled up her datapad. Kubitz sensed that it was a welcome distraction for her. “Yes,” she reported. “All systems appear normal.”
“Good. Let’s run that last set of tests against the Code. We have five sets of DNA to run now.”
“The two remaining clones and our own DNA, as controls?”
“Correct. It’s not ideal, but time is short and we need a breakthrough. If we need a bigger sample size, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
“Hey, I wonder if the coffee is still warm,” Holden said, and headed off down the hallway.
Kubitz had almost forgotten the kid was standing there. Kid. Kubitz shook his head. Holden was in his mid twenties. It was hard to see the young man as anything but a kid, with their history.
He checked his datapad for messages and shuffled through the corridors toward the weight room. Some exercise would do wonders right about now.
∆∆∆
Holden walked into the break room fuming. He’d intended to check on the coffee, but the real reason he wanted to get away was to vent some frustration. He was appalled at how casually the doctors had taken the cyber attack. A group of pansy activists back on Earth threatened the lives of their team on the moon, and all the doctors could do was shrug about it?
He touched the side of the coffee pot. Room temperature. He was mad enough, he felt like he could heat the coffee with rage alone.
He was most disappointed in Dr. Kubitz. The doctor had taken Holden in as a young man and helped mentor him and raise him. He’d been in the group home for years before that. They’d always told him that his mom was strung out on every synth known to man. Holden had a hard time remembering her. One day, they told him she’d died.
So Kubitz had brought him in. It was the doctor’s influence that made him want to become a doctor himself someday.
Holden had tried his hardest in school but never had the knack for it. He excelled in biology and history, but couldn’t string together a math problem to save his life. Numbers still made little sense to him. No medical schools would accept the subpar arithmetic scores, and so Holden had to settle for humiliating lab tech instead.
Not to say he wasn’t grateful for the opportunity. That Dr. Kubitz would bring him along on a mission this important was a testament to the trust the doctor had in Holden. Holden didn’t want to let his guardian down.
But after a year on Lune helping the two doctors with their research, Holden began to feel like something of a third wheel. He’d suspected nothing romantic between Dr. Sifra and Kubitz, but more of an intellectual bond he’d never comprehend. The doctors simply engrossed themselves in their work. Even in the years leading up to the war, Kubitz had been a decent caretaker, but really invested. Holden’s councilors told him that he often lashed out because he wanted to be noticed. Could be there was some truth in that.
As they delved deeper into the research and understanding of the echoes and their genetics, Holden grew more and more distant. He was now almost exclusively relegated to menial tasks. He sighed and pulled the pot off the hot plate and dumped the coffee down the sink. Menial tasks such as making coffee. As he poured fresh grounds into the machine, he felt like more of a secretary than anything else.
And now, with war threatening them from two fronts, the doctors still huddled up over their microscopes, ignoring everything burning around them. Holden hadn’t felt so helpless since the boys’ home.
His temper grew, and he felt his face flush. He tried to remember what the counselors had told him. Think happy thoughts. Not in as few words, but the sentiment was the same. When he got in this frame of mind, he often wondered who he’d be if things had been different.
Would he still have these struggles if he’d been left to fend for himself? Or would he be better? He could’ve been a doctor on his own. Or, if his real dad had stuck around, Holden would’ve followed in his dad’s footsteps instead.
He didn’t remember much about his biological dad. Flashes and glimpses more than anything. Instead of focusing on everything that made him angry, he directed his mind back to those few happy memories. As the memories of warm sun on his skin warmed his heart, his hands stopped shaking.
∆∆∆
For the second time in a day, Kubitz attempted to work through his problems in the facility’s weight room.
In Lune’s low gravity, it was imperative for residents to exercise regularly and with high intensity, though Kubitz was likely overdoing it. He enjoyed the exercise. He’d always been fit back on Earth, so it wasn’t hard for him to adjust to the heavy regimen. But the main reason he spent most of his time in the sparse gym was to concentrate.
The problem plaguing his intellect at the moment was the question of “what next?” He believed Avani had stumbled upon the Echo Code, as he’d begun to call it. His team of three had been working for over a year to find the Code, though many thought it a useless venture. Kubitz’ peers often pointed out that since all clones had implants—at least all the
recovered clones—it would be far simpler to test for those implants, through X-Ray, metal detectors, or any number of tools.
What was the purpose of his program, then? Kubitz had argued while the tests were easy to perform, the process could be anything but. His main argument was that a clone would need to be in custody to do any such test. By comparison, DNA was far easier to obtain. His opponents still voiced their opinion and Kubitz was given minimal funding and treated more like a nuisance than an asset.
The man in the black suit seemed to be the only person in the galaxy who recognized the value in Kubitz’ work. Still, that he’d bothered to visit Lune was odd, if not surprising. From what little he knew of the man, Kubitz recognized a flair for the dramatic. Or at the least, Black Suit loved to see people on edge.
It was a test, Kubitz decided as he racked the tension bell and sat up, stretching his arm and chest muscles. It was a test to see if Kubitz had a plan. Unfortunately, he didn’t. Kubitz had long suspected that a day might come when the clones would attempt to infiltrate the human ranks in secret, not through brash assaults. He suspected it was only a matter of time before the war took on a different flavor.
Kubitz wished he had a good answer. He’d always assumed he would have more time. And if he was honest with himself, he had assumed a practical solution would present itself.
“Doctor?” Avani’s voice rang through the overhead speaker as Kubitz toweled his face dry. “I’m sorry to bother you, it’s just… well, you’re going to want to see this.”
Kubitz grimaced. This sort of thing never resulted in good news. He finished wiping his face and headed toward the lab control, bracing himself for the unfortunate news. Not that he wasn’t excited to see the results, but he was nervous about the next steps.
“Well,” Kubitz said as he entered the control room a few minutes later. “What do we have?”
Avani looked at him, concern etched on her face. “I should tell you that I haven’t looked at the specific findings yet. You need to be the one to see them first.” She pulled up a screen that showed six sets of DNA, scrolling too fast to read. “We used DNA from the three remaining clones. When the sequencer isolated the SEPT7 gene in each of them, the results were as expected: they all possessed the mutation. I then fed our DNA into the computer and allowed it to isolate the same gene and check it against what we know of the clones’ genes. This is what I found.”
Echo- First Pulse Page 10
