Genetic Drift (25 page)

DAY 285

SUMMONING FORCES

THE ELLIPSE

Omega, the queen mother, had decided on the best course of action to rid itself of any and all opposition.  Omega had to balance the need for terraforming to sustain life in the Syrsyrian bodies and the need to eradicate the human interveners.  The surviving humans across the world were becoming more of a nuisance and more difficult to eliminate.  Omega’s sights were set on Tennessee where the usurpers and humans had overtaken a terraforming unit.  After all, this was the first terraformer taken and its loss would slow down the area’s growth.

Omega reviewed the current directives sent out to the deployed units.  Locate and assimilate the indigenous humans.  Eliminate human threats.  Enable the terraforming to begin.  Maintain contact with the queen mother for updated directives.  Choose to be an individual and find
Rho
. 

What is this?
  Omega was unable to control the feeling.  Anger started to fill its blue body.  Anger, a new feeling, a feeling that a being such as Omega shouldn’t know or feel.  Omega had been so focused on expanding its consciousness that it did not have time for trite feelings like anger.  Omega quickly refocused the efforts to squash the anger. 
How did that short-sentient change the directives?
  Omega erased all the directives in North America.  The other continents were going as the queen mother planned.  It placed only one directive into the network that delivered the information to the bunkers nearest to the terraformer that housed
Rho
and Maddie.  Find and eliminate
Rho
and its human vessel.  Now every Troll nearby would abandon its tasking and search for
Rho
.  There was no doubt about their directive.  The terraforming would have to wait until the biggest threat against the Trolls had been eliminated. 

Omega did not consider that some of the Trolls might have already known about the
Rho
directive.  The first places Omega would gather forces from would be the bunkers closest to the terraformer that housed
Rho
.  Omega thought that an immediate assault would be best and it would be the quickest way to rid itself of the humans.

DAY 286

WILL WANDERS

INTERFACE ROOM

“Oh no, it happened again.” Will was frozen to the ground, his hands, palms down, were holding him in place.  The smell of gunfire entered his nose and his eyes nervously looked around the room.  The last thing he remembered was being outside of the camp and the General speaking to them about the possibility of attack by the aliens.  Will pushed himself up to the sitting position and saw two men looking at a map on the wall.  One man was Ben.  He remembered Ben from Roanoke when he offered to take him away from the alien-infested rat hole where he was staying.  The other man he did not know.  He thought he remembered him from the trip but couldn’t quite remember what he did or who he was. 

He decided to ask them for help.  “Excuse me guys, can you tell me where I am?” his meek voice asked.

“Stop messing around Quill.  I’m glad you got rest but you can come over here now,” Ben told him without looking back.  Ethen turned around to see Will getting to his feet.

“What am I wearing?” Will asked himself.  He looked down at his clothing, “This is definitely not what I was wearing when I left the hospital.”  Will walked up to Ben and Ethen.  He observed the redness of the map.  “What are you guys looking at?” Will asked.

“We’re looking at the map of the Trolls.  Did something happen to your brain while you were sleeping?” Ben asked.

“Not that I know of,” Will responded as he scratched the back of his head. 

“Quill, we really don’t have time to explain this to you.  Why don’t you look around and explore what assets we have around here?” Ben barked.

“Well, um, okay, just so you know, I’m not Quill. I’m Will,” Will told Ben but neither of the two men paid him any attention. 

Will had no idea where he was or where he was supposed to go.  He turned around and noticed a doorway in front of him.  He approached it and noticed that there were stairs that went up and down.  Will analyzed the stairwell and decided that going up would be his best option.  He timidly took his first step and looked up to see if he would encounter anything.  He took another step and looked up again.  Each step he repeated the process until he finally made it up to the next level.  He stood in front of an open door and was mesmerized by all of the color.  Purple, blue, green, filled his vision as he gazed upon the flora.  There were beautiful plants as far as the eye could see.  It was an arboretum.

He looked down at the threshold and noticed that there was something purple at the front of the area but it did not come into the stairwell.  A perfect line formed separating the inside and outside of the room.  “Well, he said to check things out.” Will took a step into the beautiful room.  The scent of trees and grass was exactly like the forest outside Roanoke but the plants looked nothing like it.  He lifted his head and took a deep breath through his nose.  A grin pierced through his normally anxious disposition.  Will thought this was a pleasant place.

Will walked up to a small tree.  He gently touched the blue leaf sprouting from the branch.  His gentle touch turned into a rub between his thumb and forefinger.  His hand pulled away and some of the blue from the leaf transferred to his fingertips.  He wiped his hand on his pants as he looked closely at the orange bark.  The bark was scaly.  He tried to pry some of it off of the tree.  It wouldn’t budge since the bark interlocked and was packed tight.  It seemed like a harmless plant and he left it alone.

Will turned around and noticed the wall.  “If I follow the wall then I can easily find my way back to the door,” he said as if someone was there to listen.  He walked to the wall and ran his hand against it.  He looked to his left and decided it was safe.  His steps were less timid now and he started walking.  “How in the world did I get here?” he asked as he stayed close to the wall.

The blackouts had been excessive since the alien arrival.  They used to happen when he felt a fear for his life.  He thought they would have stopped by leaving the hospital but this blackout was not like the others.  He had never woken up in a place he had never seen.  The doctor had told him that he suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder. He called it DID.  Will knew about his alter ego Quill but had not given him much attention until now.  He thought that Quill was his protector.  Quill showed up when Will couldn’t handle a situation when his life was on the line.  Will needed to comfort himself and make sense of this new place.

Will walked past another small tree.  This one was red with blue leaves.  The next tree had the orange bark and the same blue leaves.  He looked around and noticed that all of the trees had blue leaves.  “No green,” he said as he inspected the leaves.  Each time his fingers came away from the leaves, he would have to wipe the blue residue from his fingertips.  He repeated his inspections on every tree while walking next to the wall.

He continued his stroll until he met some underbrush.  He peered through the strands to find the floor and looked for the safest way to navigate.  There were no thorns, just blue leaves attached to blood red cordons.  He found an open patch and stepped delicately on the ground.  He looked for another place to step and found another clearing.  He took his second step and his feet were pulled from under him. 

Will fell face down to the ground as the cordons began to reel him away from the wall.  Sliding feet-first on his belly, he struggled to turn around and see where he was being dragged.  Will managed to twist his torso to face the direction his body was traveling.  He wished he hadn’t.  A huge red plant that was equally as red as the cordons was dragging him perilously close to its base.  A red trapdoor that was the mouth of the plant opened right above the ground.  Will was trying to grab anything he could get his hands on.  The young trees didn’t leave much on the ground for him to grab.  Then his hand hit upon his blade. 

He went up and came down with a small thud as he was dragged over a root.  The motion was enough to make the blade easy to grasp.  Will grabbed the hilt and extracted the blade.  He began to viciously slice anything that wasn’t him around his feet.  He sliced and he chopped and he cleaved.  The cordons were flying outward each time he pulled his blade back to reattack. 

With one last swing, he stopped three feet away from the trapdoor of the plant.  The door closed in front of him and he stayed sitting in his position.  He could feel his heart racing and he couldn’t stand up quite yet.   He looked down and saw the cordons were no longer wrapped around his feet.  After a deep breath, Will stood up.  The mouth was as tall as he was and perfectly masked by the trees from a distance.  Black dirt was smeared in his clothes and on his skin.  His forearm attempted to wipe some of the dirt away from his eyes and nose but only left a streak of black.  “I think we have had enough here.” Will was weak-kneed and turned to face the wall.  It was a good 200-feet away.  He took a step and looked back at the plant making sure that it wasn’t going to try to grab him again.  He took another step with no reaction from the plant and then he sprinted to the wall avoiding any possible contact with the cordons.

Once Will made it to the wall, he ran to his right toward the doorway.  He passed by all of the blue-leaved trees that he had examined before.  The purple moss bunched together revealing the black dirt underneath as Will slid to a stop in front of the stairwell.  He regained his balance and grabbed the doorway.  He pulled his body through and restarted his sprint down the stairs.  As Will rushed through the door to the interface room, he screamed, “There’s a killer plant in there!”  His screams were met with silence and nobody was in the interface room to hear him. 

“Where could they be?” Will asked himself as he spun around.  Of the two doors, he didn’t know which way he had come into the room.  He knew that taking the stairs resulted in a terrible experience, so he decided to take the other door.  He walked into a corridor that had closed doors on his left and right.  Since they were closed, he didn’t bother trying to go through them.  “Another set of stairs?” he asked as he looked down the same way the Troll had lead him when his mind was switched to Quill.  He took a deep breath as he went down the stairs, “I hope there aren’t any killer plants down here.”  He made it down the stairs unharmed and continued down the hallway that he, Maddie, Hope, and Jay had walked through.  He made it to a split and he could either go forward or to his right.  Since he could see bodies on the floor if he went forward, he thought it would be better to try the path with less carnage. 

He walked over a dead Troll and then around something that looked like a scorpion to meet with the door outside.  He poked his head outside to see Ben and Ethen talking to Hope and Maddie, and three Trolls were behind them.  He felt a blackout coming, “No, I’m not going to freak out this time.”  He watched as they talked and the Trolls just stood there, not attacking. 

After a few minutes of watching, his curiosity took over.  He walked outside and asked his fellow humans, “Are we friends with them now?”

Maddie turned to him and said, “Quill, I told you they were going to help us.”

“I’m Will. Why do I have to keep telling you people?” he replied as he came closer.

“Okay, Will, they are joining us,” Ethen remarked.

Will walked up to Ben while keeping his stare on the Trolls, “That’s great that they joined the fight but did you know there are man-eating plants in there?”   He pointed back at the terraformer.

“No, but it wouldn’t surprise me,” Ben answered.

“Yeah, I would have told you sooner but you left me in there… alone,” Will said.

“Sorry to do that to you but we decided it would be better to be out here.  Trust me, we called for you but you never came,” Ben told him in order to eliminate any guilt Will was trying to put on him.

“Just please, don’t leave me behind again and let me tell you about those plants,” Will said, and then he explained what had happened.

DAY 286

JOINING PARTIES

TERRAFORMER GROUNDS

The sky was painted with dark and light gray clouds covering the ground below in a cooling shade.  Hope and Maddie exited the terraformer and walked down the ramp.  The humidity in the air formed a film of water on their skin.  Marcus and Jay were close behind.

“We’re going to walk the perimeter of this place and check out what is around it,” Marcus told the women.  He stood in front of Jay and nodded his head for Jay to follow him.

“I want to stay with Hope,” Jay said.

“They’ll be fine. We should see if there’s anything around here,” Marcus said, keeping himself between Jay and his sister.

“Hope, if anything comes, go back inside and wait for me,” Jay yelled to Hope.

“I will, Jay.  I’ll be fine, I’m with Maddie,” Hope yelled back.

Jay resigned himself to walking with Marcus.  “It’s always better to travel in pairs,” Marcus told Jay as they began their trek.

“I know, if we got attacked, it’s better that both of us die instead of one,” Jay said.

“You know, thinking the worst of a situation is only going to make you more on edge.”

“Marcus, I lost her once and I don’t want to lose her again.  It’s not like you understand.”  

“You’re right.  I only know what it’s like to be talking to my wife when she died from the Attack.  I wouldn’t understand your point of view.” Marcus’ disgust with Jay’s last comment flowed out.  Jay heard Marcus and decided it was better to remain silent.  Jay knew that any argument that he would bring up would be countered by Marcus’ experience.  They walked around the corner of the large metallic structure.  Jay was hesitant having Hope out of his sight but continued his walk behind Marcus.

“Do you wonder where your monitor went?” Hope asked Maddie.

Maddie hadn’t given Barron much thought.  With meeting Bryce, finding Hope, and listening to
Rho
, she really didn’t have time to think about him.  Hope’s question brought Barron to the forefront of her mind.  “I really haven’t thought about him until now,” Maddie replied to Hope.

She wondered if
Rho
had any idea where Barron might have been.  
Rho
was in her thoughts and told Maddie,
“There are currently 47 human vessels being assimilated in the area.  I do not have any more specificity than that.”
 Maddie wondered if one of those vessels could have been Barron.  Even though she thought he was being a jerk at the camp, he had still tried to help her whenever she was in trouble.

“We’ll have to try to find him after we get done here,” she told Hope.  “I just hope that he’s okay.”

“Okay, I was just wondering if you knew,” Hope said shrugging her shoulders.

Maddie and Hope watched the tree line actually hoping to see Trolls walk through.  “If they come out of those woods shooting, or even aiming at us, we’re going to get back into that fortress and avoid them,” Maddie told Hope.  

“If there is any chance that they are going to shoot at us, I bet you that I’ll beat you in there,” Hope said.

Just as Hope finished, a blue figure walked out of the woods.  Maddie braced herself to sprint onto the ramp and grabbed Hope to get her attention.  A Troll walked out and looked behind and to its sides to make sure that it wasn’t going to be attacked or followed.  The Troll saw the two women in front of it and proceeded toward them.  It was holding its orbitizer to its side and approached them as innocently as it could.  It walked in front of Maddie and extended its claw toward her.  Maddie reached out and grabbed one of its talons.  

I am Rho, we assume that you are here on your own accord wishing to live as an individual.   Rho
began the conversation.

Yes, I am here for me and others.  The others will not come until they know that it is safe.  The memories of my vessel still reside in me and I wish to live as you will let us, without the queen mother’s directives.  
The Troll passed back to
Rho
.

You do understand that your independent life can only happen if the queen mother is defeated?  That once you fight against the queen mother, you will continue to fight until you or it are no longer?   Rho
asked the being.

We all understand but we also understand that you could be corralling us to kill us.  The humans do not understand that we have had no other option until now and they have tried to eradicate us.  
The being spoke for itself and the others.

These humans understand and wish for you to join us against the queen mother.  This is a logical opportunity to stop trying to dominate them and more of us will survive.  Would you join us?   Rho
asked.

We have come here to join you and the humans.  There are others that will fight against you.  The forces of the queen mother will attack tonight as it is the new directive.  We have decided to reject the new directive and join the humans for our own freedoms. 

Very well. Have your friends come and join us.  Rho
invited the Trolls in hiding to come out.

Ben and Ethen walked out of the terraformer to see the Troll walking away.  “Let me guess, he didn’t come to attack,” Ben commented.

“He wants to join and brought others.  He’s going to get them now.  Why are you out here?  Don’t trust us?” Maddie asked.

“I decided that we couldn’t do anything else in there.  We serve the better purpose staying out here where we can see what’s going on,” Ben answered

Ben and Ethen walked toward Maddie as the Troll lumbered its way back to the tree line.  It disappeared into the woods for a few minutes and walked back out with two Trolls behind it.  Ben watched as the three Trolls exited the woods and made their way toward Maddie.  The first Troll approached and moved to the side and the two new Trolls approached Maddie.  They put out their claws in the same way as the first one and Maddie grabbed both of their claws at the same time.  
Rho
not only invited them to join but also assured them that they were not entering into a trap and invited them to ask others to join.

Maddie released her grip as Will ran out of the terraformer rambling about a killer plant he had found while wandering through the fortress.  They were calming Will when another Troll walked out of the woods.  This Troll was with a human.  Will stopped paying attention to the others trying to sooth his hysteria.  “Isn’t that someone we know?” he pointed toward the human walking toward them.

Maddie turned around to see Barron walking toward her.  She began to walk toward him.  The Troll and Barron stopped as she approached.  
“Maddie, stop walking toward them,”
Rho
told her.  She stopped and stood in place.  The Troll and Barron continued to walk toward her as she was not showing any signs of aggression.  They walked side-by-side and stopped in front of Maddie.  The Troll held out its claw and Barron extended his hand to her.  

Maddie told
Rho
,
“I want to speak to Barron alone.  I need you to just listen.”

She wrapped both of her hands around Barron’s and a voice entered her head.

I am a new sentient in this vessel and wish to join you.

Maddie dropped her hands, releasing her contact with Barron.  She stared at him.  “How did this happen?  You were only gone for two days,” she asked as her voice softened with a sigh.

Barron spoke, “We have learned a faster way to assimilate human vessels.”  He pointed to a red scar on his temple and said, “With the proper insertion techniques and replacement of brain cells, a human vessel can be assimilated in a few hours.”

Maddie’s heart sunk as Barron, or what was posing as Barron, spoke to her.  Then she realized he spoke.  She grabbed his hand again.    

Not wanting to speak aloud, she asked Barron.
 Is Barron still there, can he hear me?

The voice inside of Barron answered.
 Yes, there are parts of your friend that are still conscious.  He has lost the ability to control his speech and movement but he still controls his basic functions.

Can he communicate through you?  Can you speak for him?  
She asked, hoping to get the answer she so much desired.

He can understand you and says, ‘I don’t understand what is going on.  Why can’t I see?  Why can’t I feel?  Maddie, can you hear me?  I can hear you.’  He is still trying to comprehend what has happened.  
The voice inside of Barron told her.

Maddie understood.  The nanocytes inside of Barron had to filter his thoughts outward.  Unlike
Rho
, who could freely let Maddie communicate through its neural path, Barron was stuck, unable to interact with the outside world.  He was a prisoner, a mere consciousness in the grand scheme that was his body.  Maddie could reach out to him but his responses would always be buffered.  She had to ask the body that was once Barron’s to answer the question that was on her mind.  
Will Barron ever be able to talk to us?

The voice answered.
 I am what is left of Barron.  I cannot reconnect Barron to his former self.  I am Barron now.

Maddie dropped her grip again.  Her hands went down to her side with no intention of talking through a proxy to the real Barron.  With the exception of the red cluster on his temple, this new Barron walked and talked like the old one.  Its speech was more boorish than the old Barron but to everyone behind Maddie, they couldn’t tell the difference.

“You were assimilated?” Hope asked the new Barron.

“Yes,” it answered.   It pointed to its scar.  “There are areas of the human brain that can be removed to allow us control of the body.”

“Cool—” Hope started to say.

“No, it’s not cool,” Maddie stopped her.  “That’s not Barron.  That’s not an Inject.  That’s an alien.”  Maddie turned around and walked away.  She brushed by Hope as a movable obstacle in her way.  She didn’t understand why she was feeling this way since Barron wasn’t even important enough for her to miss.  But she knew that he never deserved this.

Maddie walked up the ramp to the terraformer and looked at Barron one more time.  She shook her head and could not believe that it really wasn’t him anymore.  She turned away and walked inside.

Jay and Marcus were completing their patrol around the fortress.  Jay saw Hope and ran toward her.  “Is that Maddie’s monitor?” he asked Hope as she reached for the new Barron.  

Jay reached her as she made the connection.  She stood there in silence and Jay just watched.  Hope looked at the scar on Barron’s temple as she was definitely communicating with him.  She dropped her hands and then her head.  She turned to Jay and just hugged him.  “This is so sad,” she said as she gripped him tightly.

“Barron, are you with us?” Ben asked.

“That is why I am here,” the sentient answered.

Hope let go of Jay, knowing that the Troll that had come with Barron had not received any communication or direction.  She reached out her hand and invited it to fight with them.  The Troll accepted the invitation and walked toward the other Trolls.  Barron started to walk with the Troll.  In its mind, it was no longer human and the reactions from Maddie and Hope solidified that thought.  Marcus noticed the Trolls.  He assessed their presence.  If they were a threat, Ben and Ethen wouldn’t just be standing there.  He knew that those Trolls must have joined them just as Maddie had promised.

“Barron, you made it back,” Marcus called out as he walked up to Barron’s body.

“I am not who you think I am,” the sentient replied.

“What are you talking about?” asked Marcus.  Jay was confused by the comment as well.

“Your Barron has been assimilated.  I am Barron now.  I did not ask for him to be my vessel.  It was the plan of the queen mother,” the sentient responded.

Marcus squinted at Barron.  His happiness at Barron’s return morphed into distrust.  He knew that even if it sounded and looked like Barron, it was not Barron.  He knew that Barron was gone.  He detoured toward Ben and Ethen and let Barron continue to walk toward the Trolls.

Barron touched the Troll with whom he had met Maddie and then let go.  His eyes were fixed on Hope as she talked to Jay.