The Song of the Jubilee (The Phantom of the Earth Book 1) (18 page)

We must not allow the strain to access the subject’s cells,
Brody sent to all the scientists. The transhuman genome had more than four billion base pairs, so while Brody could discern
how
to change the DNA based on Reassortment’s adjustments, to execute them fast enough to keep up with the strain—which reproduced and mutated at unnatural speeds, even without taking control of the host cells—required his team’s aid.

He transmitted the necessary genetic changes to his scientists, and his team executed the instructions. They accessed the ZPF and sent the requests to the subject’s neurochip, his cells, and finally to his DNA, the code used by the proteins.

Fifteen seconds.

The strain encrypted a section of its genome, designed to elude the transhuman immune system. Brody decrypted it and sent the instructions to the subject’s cells. He watched the subject in the rendition above his and his strike team’s workstations. The subject took an unsure step off the slab toward the forest. He stepped again, and again, moving more assuredly than when he’d first emerged upon the surface.

Twenty-five seconds.

Verena examined the subject’s vitals.
The subject is steady. His immune system is responding.

For a heartbeat, Brody wondered what the subject was thinking, then he checked himself. He had a policy of never connecting to the subject’s consciousness during the Jubilees, relying instead on Marstone’s review afterward. Emotions typically flooded the subject’s consciousness during a clinical trial, and Brody couldn’t let himself be distracted by them. He’d not be able to make the necessary adjustments to the transhuman DNA or react to the Reassortment Strain’s ciphers if he spread his mind too thin. For while much of the transhuman genome wasn’t necessary to support life, one incorrect adjustment and Brody could kill the subject faster than the strain.

He’d not allow the subject to die because of his actions.

One hundred fifteen seconds.

The strain may not gain access.
Reassortment encrypted a portion of its genome again, and again Brody decrypted it and sent the instructions to the subject’s immune system.

Two hundred fifteen seconds.

The subject’s immune system continues to disable Reassortment,
Verena sent.

Brody formed another set of alterations to the subject’s genome and transmitted them to his team.
The strain may not gain access.

Three hundred eighty seconds.

We just have to give the subject a little more time,
Nero sent.

The subject waddled through a stream, and the crowd in the great city’s valley cheered. Brody pictured Damy on the sand, celebrating their return to the surface—

A scientist collapsed and screamed under the dome.

Brody sensed a swell of emotions from his team, of fear, anger, hatred, and hope. His pulse quickened.

The strain may not gain access,
he sent.

Another scientist collapsed.

Four hundred seventy-two seconds.

Brody looked around the dome. Scientists ran, screamed, cried, and died.

Captain!
Verena sent to Brody.
We must evacuate!

Brody ignored his strategist. The strain encrypted itself again and began to infect the subject’s cells. Brody decrypted it and sent the instructions to the subject’s immune system. He also determined a new set of alterations to the subject’s genome and sent them to his team to execute.

But not enough obeyed him. More of the subject’s cells succumbed to the Reassortment Strain.

Listen to me, all of you!
Brody sent.

The surviving scientists stopped, while those who writhed and screamed, dying from Reassortment exposure, silenced. Research bots wrapped them in body bags.

We’re not leaving—

Another scientist dropped, writhed, and screamed violently.

Verena grabbed Brody’s arm, but he shook free of her grasp and she fell into Nero’s arms.

We’re not leaving!
he repeated, pointing at her and to all his team, his eyes wide. The scientists’ chests lifted and fell in quick repetitions. They looked petrified.
If the subject dies,
Brody looked at Nero, then to Verena, and to all the survivors,
we all die!

Six hundred seventeen seconds: a new record for a Jubilee.

Three more scientists collapsed, then another, and another, and another.

The death cries surrounded Brody like a spring storm. He blocked them out. He only saw the Reassortment Strain, twisting and turning, encrypting its DNA, doing its dance, but this time it camouflaged its standard proteins with mirror ones, and Brody couldn’t decipher the new code, and more scientists dropped, and Brody’s helmet fogged, and the world spun around him, and he thought,
My gods, Damy, you were right.

Damy debated Chancellor Masimovian’s commentary. It seemed their great leader may have harbored a separate agenda, aside from evaluating the Reassortment research. She cleared this traitorous thought from her mind, hoping Marstone missed it. Though a part of her no longer cared.

Johann of Piscator ran across the island, as so many transhuman subjects had before him, and the crowd loved it. A couple screamed and kissed next to Damy. Groups downed mugs filled with beer, and well-dressed Beimenians danced to the orchestra’s melody.

In some of the panels, Johann made his way over the island, while in others the crowds in Underground West, North, South, Northeast and East all celebrated.

Johann splashed his face with water from the stream and breathed deep, smiling. Damy allowed herself to swell with pride and hope as Beimeni took up an unlikely song:

Oh, Brody,
Damy thought,
this
is
incredible.
Her eternal partner had done great work on his latest serum.

Johann cavorted through tall grass beyond a stream, waving his long arms, completely soaked.

The crowd cheered.

Then, as Johann’s gait unsteadied, Damy felt a pain in her chest.

She feared the end was drawing near. She’d seen this countless times before.

What effect would failure today have on Brody’s confidence, she wondered. How would he continue? What would the chancellor do?

She and Brody had been talking more and more about the possibility of children, of giving the chancellor an heir to enter development and the Harpoons. But she couldn’t fathom bringing a new life into a world like this.

She dodged the spray from a champagne bottle and avoided swinging limbs. The chanting, which seared Damy’s nerves more than fear of Reassortment, had evolved into dancing.

Burgundy rose petals rained over the valley.

Johann crawled along the ground.

The chancellor closed his eyes, raised his arms, and inclined his head. He grinned when the chants shifted to the First Precept:

Hans slowed. He turned.

What
is
that noise?
he thought.
That tapping?

He focused.

The sound originated in the leaves and the flowers and the blossom-dotted grass.

Hans jerked his head back and forth, listening.

The wind picked up and curved the grass in his direction. He took in nature’s scents, pines and evergreens and birch wood.

It smelled like Vivo Territory.

He closed his eyes. His mouth was dry, his tongue as rough as metamorphic rock. His stomach grumbled. Did he have water? Did he have sustenance? He couldn’t remember.
There are fish in the streams
, he thought.
I’ll go back there
.

Hans labored to move his legs, which felt filled with cement. The rumbling and rustling of wildlife drew his attention. He turned in one direction, then another, and another. Pairs and pairs of eyes as glazed as unpolished gems, large and small, stared back at him. They poked through and around the bushes and trees and leaves.

A pain in his neck and spine pulsated out through his rib cage. He shivered. His pores throbbed. His nose dripped.
I near my end, but should Connor survive, he’ll help our people win the war, he’ll—

Hans lost his thought. His blood coursed through his veins, carrying hundreds of millions of Reassortment organisms into his nerve cells, where they reproduced and ruptured. They reconfigured his neurons, relaying a new message, one of pain that made him want to cry louder than he ever had before. He contained his urge.

Then spasms rippled through Hans’s body in great swells. He collapsed, gave himself over to them. And somehow, from memories of Jubilees past or the grasping of his telepathic mind, he heard echoes rising from the deep.

Serve Beimeni, live forever. Serve Beimeni, live forever.

Hans found himself laughing. (Or was he screaming?)

He thought,
I’d rather die.

Thanks for reading
The Song of the Jubilee,
the first book in The Phantom of the Earth series. I hope you enjoyed it. The supplemental material beyond this note contains Marstone’s Database and Appendixes 1-6. I thought long and hard about whether or not to include this material in each book or simply provide it on my website. In the end, I included the material based in part on beta reader feedback and in part because I think it provides useful perspective into the characters and world building of the Phantom Series.

Please visit
http://www.raedenzen.com/
for more information including a form for my newsletter, details about the first five books in the Phantom Series (all available now on Amazon), the spectacular concept art, detailed maps, and PDF versions of Marstone’s Database (labeled by book; to avoid spoilers, don’t skip ahead), Appendixes 1-6, charts, and graphs. I also included a page to credit the team; over the last three years, a talented group of more than thirty people, including readers, editors, scientists, and artists, among others, from six countries and three continents helped me put this project together. I also listed them, and other inspirational sources, in the acknowledgments on the product page and at the end of the book.

Finally, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could post a review to Amazon. Reviews are a great way for fellow readers to discover a new series like The Phantom of the Earth and for new writers like me to learn from mistakes and improve. Please feel free to email me at
[email protected]
with any other feedback you’d like to share with me.

August 2015

Marstone’s Database contains classified dossiers on citizens of the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni. All information herein is the property of the Department of Communications and Commonwealth Relations, and the Office of the Chancellor. This iteration of the database was derived from Marstone for the government and is current as of the 107th day of the year 368 AR.

SEX:
Female

HEIGHT:
180 centimeters (5’ 11”)
WEIGHT:
62 kilograms (137 lbs.)
HAIR COLOR:
Blonde, red, brown
EYE COLOR:
Gold, silver
BIRTH YEAR:
173 AR

AUCTION YEAR:
187 AR

DEVELOPER:
House Navita
BIRTHPLACE:
Livelle City, Natura, Underground West
ETERNAL PARTNER:
Pierre Adao
LAST KNOWN RESIDENCE:
Second Ward, Palaestra City, Palaestra, Underground Northeast
OFFSPRING:
Neka Adao, Tex Adao
ATHANASIA-QUALIFIED:
Yes
NOTABLE PROPER CONVERSION:
N/A
NOTABLE SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION:
N/A
NOTABLE OCCUPATION(S):
Former RDD scientist; Harpoon developer
THREAT LEVEL (ONE TO FIVE):
One

SEX:
Male

HEIGHT:
203 centimeters (6’ 8”)
WEIGHT:
86 kilograms (190 lbs.)
HAIR COLOR:
Blue-violet
EYE COLOR:
Orange, silver
BIRTH YEAR:
188 AR

AUCTION YEAR:
199 AR

DEVELOPER:
House Zwillerzweller
BIRTHPLACE:
Angeles City, Angeles, Underground West
ETERNAL PARTNER:
Hyacinth Adao
LAST KNOWN RESIDENCE:
Second Ward, Palaestra City, Palaestra, Underground Northeast
OFFSPRING:
Neka Adao, Tex Adao
ATHANASIA-QUALIFIED:
Yes
NOTABLE PROPER CONVERSION:
N/A
NOTABLE SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION:
Constructed
E. decontamination
, a synism designed to ingest nitrogen gas, used by the Reassortment Strain to obtain energy
NOTABLE OCCUPATION(S):
Former RDD scientist; Harpoon developer
THREAT LEVEL (ONE TO FIVE):
One

SEX:
Male

HEIGHT:
198 centimeters (6’ 6”)
WEIGHT:
101 kilograms (223 lbs.)
HAIR COLOR:
Yellow-green
EYE COLOR:
Red-orange

BIRTH YEAR:
127 AR

AUCTION YEAR:
N/A

DEVELOPER:
House Phanes
BIRTHPLACE:
Livelle city-state
ETERNAL PARTNER:
Previous: Donna Dupree (deceased); Present: N/A
LAST KNOWN RESIDENCE:
Comb Cove, Gallia, Underground Northeast
OFFSPRING:
Farro Alalia (deceased), Zentaro Alalia (deceased)
ATHANASIA-QUALIFIED:
N/A
NOTABLE PROPER CONVERSION:
N/A
NOTABLE SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION:
N/A
NOTABLE OCCUPATION(S):
Former commander of the strike teams
THREAT LEVEL (ONE TO FIVE):
N/A

SEX:
Male