The Betwixt Book One (23 page)

Was there something seriously wrong with me?

‘
The damage to her genetic structure isn't . . .
well, damaging, as far as I can tell. These aren't ordinary
mutations. They're adaptive, neat, fit in with the rest of her
morphology without rocking the boat, as it were. It's
like . . . ‘ Adams took a deep breath, and stared at
the datapad in his hands again, ‘those comic books from old Earth.
You know the ones where kids would fall in a vat of toxic waste, or
cop a face-full of gamma radiation, but then somehow develop
powerful mutations, rather than dying like the rest of us
would.’

He had completely lost me, completely. Comic books? Vats of
toxic waste? Was he a real doctor?

I looked over to the Commander, sure he would have an
incredulous look on his face, his lips opening to form the words
'get on with it'. But his eyebrows were knotted in concentration –
as if he actually understood what was going on.

‘
The radiation should have killed her, or at least done some
kind of irreparable damage – but it has facilitated adaptive
mutations instead. It's like she's looked at the light of creation
and walked away with a brand new set of eyes.’

I put a hand up to my face, fingers trembling slightly as I
touched them lightly to my eyes. Looked into the light of creation
– what?

‘
I'm no physicist, Cole, I'm a doctor. I can only comment on
what I'm seeing occur at a biological level – and right now every
cell in Mini's eyes might as well be dancing the cha cha – causing
morphological changes faster than anything in any lab I've ever
seen.’

‘
Is it dangerous?’ Cole asked simply.

‘
No.’

‘
Can we stop it?’ the Commander's face was completely
neutral.

‘
No – not unless we remove her ey—’

‘
What?’ I piped up, shuffling back on my bed.

‘
No one is going to remove your eyes, Mini. So that's it,
Adams? We're dealing with a previously undiscovered form of
radiation, one that causes specific, but beneficial
mutations?’

‘
I wouldn't say that exactly. It's causing beneficial mutations
in her,’ he gestured at me with his datapad, ‘because she's got
some very strange alien DNA kicking around. I doubt it would have
the same effect on you or me.’

‘
But no one else in this crew is in any danger—’ Cole
began.

‘
Look, there is no residual radiation, and I haven't picked up
any genetic abnormalities in anyone else from that site. We're
dealing with the strange, Commander, but not the
deadly.’

Cole nodded once, and it was sharp and very definite. ‘That's
all I need to know. Is she free to leave Med Bay?’

Adams brushed down the sides of his mustache with one big
hand. ‘Sure, but tell me if she drops dead suddenly.’

I squeaked.

‘
He's joking,’ Cole shook his head, ‘more used to dealing with
rookies and marines. You've got the bedside manner of a Tarian
Merc, Adams.’

‘
Except I don't get paid half as much,’ Adams managed through a
laugh as he turned away.

I sat on the corner of the bed for a moment, not really sure
what to do next. I hadn't understood enough of what the Doctor had
been saying to know whether I was safe or not. And to top it all
off, I didn't really see what the problem was – I could see fine.
Things looked exactly the same as they had before. If my eyes were
‘dancing the cha cha’, wouldn't I notice?

I sighed quietly. I just wanted to go back to being a waitress
at Marty's Space Diner. My life was less of a life right now, and
more of a space opera.

‘
Come on,’ the Commander motioned to me from the doorway,
crossing his arms again, ‘we have to talk.’

My stomach sank quicker than a teacup tied to a 1000 tonne
rock pushed into the ocean. Oh dear.

But I stood up and followed the Commander out of the Med Bay.
He walked me through a wide corridor lined with other GAMs as they
jogged about doing whatever it is they did when they weren't
fighting wars or drinking crappy space cocktails.

Eventually we reached a room with a huge holounit in the
middle. There were comfortable, but still military-looking chairs
set up all the way around the projector. It was obviously some kind
of briefing room.

Od was sitting there, and Crag'tal, Doctor Cole too – and a
whole lot of empty seats.

‘
This is where you all tell me what's going on,’ the Commander
began.

I very carefully took a seat closest to the door. I liked to
think I had the option to run, even though I wouldn't be able to
make it far . . . 

‘
This is ridiculous, Jason,’ Doctor Cole began, arms crossed
just like her son's had been moments before, ‘you can't treat us
like we're—’

‘
I'll tell you how I can treat you, Doctor Cole. I can treat
you like a group of suspects wanted in connection with illegal
genetic experiments and violation of the Central maxim not to
create banned forms of life.’ Jason didn't bother to sit down, he
just stood directly next to the holounit, staring at us all in
turn.

‘
Don't be ridiculous,’ Doctor Cole blustered, ‘you know very
well I didn't create that thing. I found it—’

‘
Right,’ Jason crossed his own arms, ‘that was quite a
creature. Put on quite a show. If things like that were just
sitting around archaeological sites, waiting to be found – don't
you think we would have heard about it before?’

This time Doctor Cole snorted, and it was about as derisive as
you could get. ‘Don't you bring this up, Jason. You know very well
I've been finding things out about the Twixts my whole
life—’

‘
The Twixts,’ Jason took a deep breath and shook his
head.

‘
Oh you can't be serious – you still don't believe me?’ Doctor
Cole was sitting on the edge of her chair, body so tense it looked
ready to snap up and bounce around the room like a spring under
strain.

‘
I don't know what to believe, because I still don't know what
happened down there.’

‘
Many things happened down there,’ Od spread his arms wide,
‘many.’

I winced and sucked in my lips. Now really wasn't the time for
babbling Od to meet single-word-sentences Commander Cole. This
would get ugly . . . 

‘
Some things I would not have expected, some I did not even
imagine possible,’ Od continued.

Jason didn't look amused. His lips weren't exactly frowning,
but they were dead straight – as if he'd adjusted them with a
level.

‘
But I think that you are using the premise that you hold us
here under suspicion of violating the Central law against banned
genetic experiments – as a ploy to pressure your mother into giving
a more detailed version of events.’ Od cupped his hands in his lap.
‘You do not believe that the creature you encountered on the Crag
moon was the result of a sophisticated genetic experiment – you
believe that your mother really did find it. Though perhaps you do
not go so far as to believe it is a Twixt, maybe just a previously
unidentified form of life. Perhaps from beyond the reaches of this
galaxy—’

‘
Perhaps you should stop telling me what I believe, Kroplin,’
Jason's voice was careful, but clearly dangerous.

‘
He's right, Jason. I know you're playing a game here. But it
doesn't matter anymore – I'll tell you everything. If you'll
listen. You just need to ask the right questions.’

‘
I have a waitress who can move faster than a battle mech, a
Crag, a Kroplin, an unidentified creature that gives off
unrecognized radiation, and my own mother right in the middle of
it. What questions should I be asking? Does anybody want a cup of
tea?’

I was just about to answer that I would love a cup of tea,
anything to hide behind, when I realized it was a joke question. I
just pressed my lips together and tried to become
invisible.

‘
You're just like your father sometimes,’ Doctor Cole shook her
head.

Jason looked . . . a strange mix of hurt and
just plain angered by that comment. ‘Start at the beginning, and
start now. I'm putting my ass on the line talking to you like this.
My superiors want answers, and they want them yesterday. I thought
if I talked to you all first, it would be softer on you. But if you
don't start cooperating, I will hand you over to someone else. And
no, they won't be conducting this meeting in the briefing
room.’

His non-specific threat hung in the air like the sword of
Damocles – read to strike us down should any of us grow any more
comfortable or cocky.

‘
Several months ago I received a message
from . . . the Rain Man,’ Doctor Cole began with a
sigh, ‘and before you ask, it's a codename for—’

‘
I know who the Rain Man is, now keep going,’ Cole said, voice
less dangerous than before, but still not something you would use
to herd bunny rabbits.

‘
He said he had the location and funding for a site that was
connected to the People—’

Jason took a massive breath and sighed, his chest almost
looking like it would rip though his uniform. ‘The People – they're
a myth—’

‘
Jason, you're asking me to tell you the truth, and this is
what I'm doing. The Rain Man had the finances, the location, he
even provided half of my team. He assured me it would be the find
of a lifetime – and it was.’

‘
The find of a terminally short lifetime, maybe,’ Jason added
quietly. ‘Did he know what was down there? Did he give any
indication —’

‘
No. He said his intel suggested it was an ancient site of the
People – ruins or something. But when we began our
excavations . . . we realized something was up. We
were receiving strange readings, way off the scale. By the time the
main chamber was fully excavated—’ Doctor Cole's voice just trailed
off. ‘None of us could believe what we were looking at. I had at
least five people leave the dig site that day – they couldn't
handle to look at that thing any longer.’

‘
Five people left? Can you confirm their identities? They may
have been responsible for the Tarian Mercs—’

‘
I don't know if they would have told on us, Jason, but I'll
give you their names. They weren't my people – my people had the
stomach to move on with the expedition. It wasn't long after we had
made our discovery that those three turned up, uninvited.’ She
nodded in the direction of Crag'tal and Od.

Uninvited, that was one way to put it.

‘
And then what happened?’ Commander Cole looked at me briefly,
eyes meeting mine for the slightest moment before he dragged them
away again to glare at his mother.

‘
Oh, it reacted to her,’ Doctor Cole sat back, face growing
bitter. ‘Of all the beings in all the galaxy – she was the last
thing I needed to come down that ladder.’

Jason's eyes had practically disappeared under his crinkled
eyebrows. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘
Jason, you aren't going to believe a word of it – but here it
is anyway. That thing was a Twixt, but not an ordinary one. My team
and I are fairly confident in our hypothesis that that thing is
what results from a Twixt that has been left in our dimension for
too long. It becomes visible, distended—’ Doctor Cole broke off for
a second, before taking a large breath. ‘Now I know you never
believed the stories I told you as a child, but I also know you
remember them. The only race capable of seeing and fighting the
Twixts were the People. Your Mini over there is half human,
half . . . ‘

Jason looked at me, right at me. I couldn't read his face,
couldn't even hold his gaze – it was too . . . I
felt like a bug under a microscope, waiting to find out whether the
scientist would let me go or pin me to a board.

‘
The Twixt could smell it in her – knew the moment she walked
in that chamber that she was a descendant of the People. And it
woke the damn thing up. Whatever containment had held it in check –
I knew it wouldn't last long with her around.’

‘
Pretend I believe you, Doctor Cole, and keep on going,’ The
Commander's voice was completely unreadable.

I felt more nervous than I had in my whole life. What was
going to happen after this conversation – what was Jason going to
do?

‘
That's when you rang, that's when the Tarians came breathing
down our necks. Don't ask me what they were after – the Twixt or
Mini – because I don't know. It could have been either, or
both.’

Me? The Tarian Mercs could have been after me? I hadn't even
considered that option before . . . why
would . . . how would they even know about me? And
what would they want?

‘
Now, as for their story,’ Doctor Cole pointed my way, ‘you are
going to have to ask them. I've told you everything, Jason. Who
they are, where they came from, what they were after, why they
showed up when they did, you're going to need to ask her
that.’

Commander Jason Cole turned to me. I could tell the questions
were on his lips. But would I be able to answer them? Or would I
crash and burn . . . ?