Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (34 page)

Dana looked
at Bearden over the top of the lab equipment. She didn’t say a word but he knew
exactly what she was thinking, because he was thinking it, too. A moral line
was being crossed and they both, along with Lee, were crossing it. What had
they become? And would there be redemption or justification? These thoughts and
others were running through their minds. What they were doing was monstrous and
unnatural, yet they proceeded anyway.

Dana took a
deep breath as she lifted up a large glass tube in her right hand and a dropper
filled with mixture 266 in her left. She looked with wide, concerned eyes at
Bear before she dropped the “Life Bringer” into the tube with Ari’s cells. The
mixture took effect right away. Cells became animated and a lifelike color
started to take over them. Bearden suddenly felt an urge to hold Dana in his
arms as the reality of the experiment hit him. It was strange to him, this
sudden need to protect her and keep her safe from this blasphemy, but he did
nothing…except stare back with the same wide-eyed, nervous expression.
        

 
Dana moved the tube to a microscope
where she could observe the horrific effect up close. Cells were dividing at an
accelerated rate, just as Lee said they would. In a couple of hours, they would
have to be moved to incubation and combined with the cell types they would
ultimately become, given direction every step of the way, then transplanted
into a biomer womb.

“We have
just harnessed immortality,” Dana said, as the color drained from her face.

The next
several hours were surreal as Lee explained in detail every little thing he was
doing to ensure that this tube of throbbing flesh would become Ari, not just
someone with identical genes. Dana took notes with a trembling hand and Bearden
felt like he was not even a part of his body. Those couldn’t be his hands that
were administering proteins and firing artificial synapses to this newly alive
brain blob. Lee, as always, was focused and tireless. He didn’t seem at all conflicted
by what he was doing. That impressed Dana a little more than it scared her,
even though she couldn’t stop the terrifying thoughts that kept passing through
her mind.

What if he does remember and is angry or no
longer at peace. What if he gains awareness before his body is complete? What
if he has no soul and is an evil thing with the memories of a life that isn’t
his.

Dana glanced
at Bearden and his expression told her that he might be thinking very similar
thoughts. She turned her back for a moment to collect
herself
,
trying hard to block out the disturbing questions from her mind. “I’m stronger
than this,” she whispered and turned back around to help finish perfecting the
abomination. When almost half the night was gone, the new Ari brain blob was incubating
and stable. Dana excused herself to get some rest and Bearden stayed in the
main lab to help Lee clean up.

Dana stood
in the shower and let the scorching water run over her body. It felt
good
, like some of the sick things she, Lee, and Bearden had
done that day were rolling off of her in the droplets of water and finding
their way down the drain.
 
She
stood there for so long that her body started to sweat in the heat. When she
couldn’t stand it anymore, she turned the water off and wrapped herself in a
towel. She walked out of the shower and was startled when she saw Bearden
standing there with his shirt unbuttoned exposing his plain white undershirt.

“Lee went
home,” he said and looked intently at her, moving his gaze from her face to her
exposed shoulders, then down to her dripping, wet legs.

He took his
shirt off, then his undershirt as he moved toward her. He wrapped one arm
around her waist and pushed her back into the shower. With his free hand he
turned the water back on and for a moment they stood in a crucial embrace
breathing heavily and staring deeply into each other’s eyes, sharing their
souls. Then, with a hunger fueled by guilt and adrenaline that no one else on
the planet could understand, they fell into a deep kiss and then ravenously
moved their hands over each other’s bodies. It was like redemption for a crime
they hadn’t meant to commit. The towel Dana was wrapped in quickly absorbed the
water and fell to the floor. When the steam was thick enough that they could
barely breath, Bearden picked her up and carried her out of the shower and
through the kitchen to Camden’s office. She wrapped her legs around his waist,
still kissing him and wove her hands through his hair, grabbing fistfuls then
releasing. He laid her down on the couch and she arched like a cat beneath him.
For the rest of the night, Dana and Bearden shut the lab, TRU, and their crimes
out of their minds and set free their confusion, frustrations, and pent up
emotions. Taking it out on each other. When their bodies were exhausted and
they finally fell asleep, they were wrapped in a blanket, pressed against each
other with their arms and legs intertwined. Dana’s cheeks were tearstained and
Bearden slept soundly for the first time in weeks.

When Bearden
awoke, he saw Dana sitting at Camden’s desk writing a letter. She was wearing
nothing but his undershirt and her hair was messy. He sat up, yawned, and
stretched.

“Hi,” Dana
said. “I wasn’t sure if you would ever get up.”

“I forgot
what it was like to feel rested,” he said. “What time is it?”

“Late.
You’ll have some explaining to do when you get to work,” she answered.

Bearden
shrugged. Somehow his government work didn’t seem important today. Dana sealed
her letter and walked over to Bearden. He reached up and grabbed her around her
hips pulling her down on his lap so that she straddled him. He started kissing
her with some of the same intensity left over from the night before. For a
moment she returned the passion, but then pulled away.

“Lee’s
here,” she said. “He’s already working and I need to go help him now.”

“Really?
Right now?” he asked as he traced his fingertips up her thighs. Dana let her
head fall back and he kissed her neck. He moved his hands under her shirt and
slid them up her body. Dana let a soft moan escape her lips and gave into
Bearden’s touch. He began gently massaging her breasts, and then they heard one
of the lab doors slam shut. They both immediately snapped out of it and Dana
stood up.

“It really
is late, Bear, you should get ready for work.”

“Yeah, I guess
I have to.”

“I made tea.
It’s in the kitchen. I’m going to get changed,” she said and ruffled his hair
with her fingers.

When she
left, Mace Magner’s face popped into Bearden’s head and he shifted gears.
 
Here he was in Camden Riles’
office…alone. He couldn’t show up to see Mace Magner late
and
empty handed. He hurried over to Camden’s desk and started
rummaging through drawers and files until he found what he was looking for, a
security access card. He put on his pants and shoved it into his pocket and
walked through the kitchen to the washroom to find his button down shirt folded
neatly beside the sink.

“Thanks,” he
said to Dana who was now walking toward him in her gray lab coat with her hair
pulled back.

“Sure,” she
smiled. “Bearden, please deliver this letter for me. It’s to my parents. They
need to know it’s my choice to be here. They probably think that I’ve been
locked up for murder. I called them once, but they said they’d been questioned
about me, so I hung up. I didn’t want to put Lee in danger. I mean, he’s been
so great, keeping me safe. But, now I think it’s okay to let them know where I
am. No one can get in here anyway and I’m sure they wouldn’t turn me in.”

“Yeah, I’ll
take it for you. I’ll go after work today.”

“Will you
come back here after?” Dana asked.

“Only if we
can do what we did last night,” he said with a sly grin.

“What, raise
the dead?” Dana joked.

“Right…”
Bearden leaned over so that his lips were right at her ear. “I’ll see you
later,” he whispered then ran out to get to TRU.

Dana felt a
shiver down her spine and hurried out of the washroom to check in with Lee.

She found
him working with the memory gene from the biomer and Ari’s DNA in Lab C, where
the new Ari was growing. He did not acknowledge her when she came in.

“Good morning,
Lee.”

“Indeed. I
needed you here two hours ago,” he scoffed.

“I’m sorry.
I just…”

“Yes, I
know. I’ll be finished here in approximately seven minutes. Then we must put
the embryos into their frozen stasis. It’s time.”

Dana was red
from embarrassment and hurt with how cold Lee was toward her. She walked out to
the main lab to say goodbye to the little creatures that she both loved and
hated. She felt sorry for them and wondered if they would feel the cold before
their little world stood still. Dana placed her hand on one of the gray, opaque
wombs and felt it’s warmth for the last time.

General Pike
and Mace Magner were standing outside of their military transport in the thick
of a very dense forest. They were watching the small recruiting village, Maile,
just on the other side of the Tyrine border on a computer screen projected from
a spy camera. The two biomachines assigned to this real world test were chained
up inside the transport with a divider between them. Their very nervous
handlers were standing by. They were just about ready to move them into
position.

Less than a
mile away, Maeve Daire stood on the top floor of a dome shaped building in the
same village of Maile. She was watching and filming General Pike and Major
Magner’s operation through a telescopic lens. Beside her was a man named Davi
Veere. He was one of the Tyrinian rebellion leaders who she had provided with
vital information, since Naja introduced them months ago. He had a stocky,
muscular build and an authoritative face. His dirty blonde hair was shoulder
length and wavy and he was roughly the same height as Maeve, but a few years
younger. Davi held in his hand a gun with hollow bullets that had recently been
filled with a bluish liquid, supplied by Maeve.
 
It was not luck that they were prepared for the surprise
attack.

After
receiving her newest assignment from Ganesh earlier, Maeve found Mace Magner’s
address in her spy database. She’d broken into his home on her way out of
Daxia, before coming here. She had gone in the middle of the day, to ensure he
wouldn’t be home, and planted tracking devices in the soles of his three pair
of field boots. That way, if he went anywhere other than the TRU Building,
where he would need them, she could easily follow. It had been a complete
surprise that the signal kicked on so soon. So, she followed him here, to this
border town, much further south than her intended Tyrinian destination.

Weapons were
sometimes made here in Maile and it had been Davi’s idea to put a portion of
the virus code into hollow bullets. Not wanting to deplete the sample too much,
only four bullets were made. Maeve had the remainder of the contents of the
stolen vial locked in her safe, ready to hand over to a small team of Tyrinian
scientists and doctors to try and replicate. And now, it appeared she would get
to witness first hand if it truly was successful at stopping the powerful
biomachines. Davi was fervent about being the one to test the virus code in
battle against the humanoid weapons that were now beginning to make their
advance.

Major Magner
and General Pike watched from outside the transport as the handlers walked to
the tree line and the biomachines crossed the border. The biomachines made no
recognition of one another and responded perfectly to their commands. When they
reached the clearing in the town, the shouting began. The unsurprised group of
Tyrinian rebels were already securing themselves in stone buildings and firing
their somewhat primitive guns at the biomachines. Their faces showed a mix of
fear and awe when they saw the beasts that were programmed to destroy them.
Pike gave the order to attack and the handlers gave the biomachines directions
to fire at the buildings. The unmatched force of their bullets easily penetrated
the walls, behind which the Tyrinian rebels had fled. Agonizing screams pierced
the woods and brought a smile to Mace’s face.

“That’s
enough,” Davi said to Maeve. “I won’t lose my fighters like this. I’m going out
there now.”

Maeve nodded
fiercely and Davi ran down the stairs and emerged as a lone soldier in the town
clearing facing the two biomachines. His gun was raised, but when he was about
to pull the trigger, a strange thing happened. The biomachines stopped firing
and moved toward each other, closer and closer until they were touching. The
handlers were frantically working their controls. Davi ducked behind a wall and
watched with
intrigue
as the dull metallic skin of the
biomachines seemed to slither around their shapes. It looked like molten rock
on it’s way to cooling. The biomachines were sharing themselves with each
other.

Watching
this same horror from a safe distance, General Pike and Major Magner were
backing into the transport ready to make a quick getaway if the need arose.
Davi, from his hiding place, once again aimed his gun at the beasts but this
time, fired. He hit one of the biomachines in the shoulder and for a moment it
had no effect, just like the other weapons that had been fired upon it. The
biomachine that had not been hit separated from the other and turned itself at
an angle, targeting the handlers in the woods. Realizing they had lost control,
they made a run for it back to the transport, but it was useless. The
biomachine fired with deadly accuracy and the handlers lay dead in the dirt
moments later. Davi fired again, hitting the same biomachine as
before,
this time in it’s body. The arm extending from the
shoulder that had been hit on his first shot was becoming immobile as the virus
code spread throughout its cells. Seeing that it was slowing, Davi rushed out
from behind the building toward the second biomachine. He shouted at the top of
his lungs as he set off his last two rounds, hitting it square in the back. The
biomachine turned towards him and Davi hit the ground. The monster aimed
directly at him and he shut his eyes hard. It misfired.

Then, both
biomachines began to exhibit a spastic shiver that was inconsistent with their
previous smooth movements. Something green and stringy started dripping from
their limbs, slow at first, and then steady.

Maeve,
having seen enough, shut her tiny camera off and fled, to return to her
original mission, continuing on to northern Tyrine. There, she would give the
Tyrinian scientists the stolen vial and along with it, a fighting chance in the
coming war. She jumped into her tiny, camouflaged transport and zoomed off,
flying low through the trees to remain undetected from Pike and Magner, and the
village survivors who might mistake her for an enemy.

General Pike
ordered Mace to start the transport. Hearing the engine, Davi got to his feet,
drew another gun from his waistband and ran toward the noise, staying low to
the ground. He wondered how many of his people behind the brittle rock and
stone walls
had been killed in the attack. Once under the
cover of the forest trees, he stopped and called the lookout tower. He ordered
the gunmen to fire at any transport rising up from the forest. Just as he hung
up, he saw the Daxian transport peek out overhead about two hundred feet from
where he was standing. Instead of flying away from the village as he
anticipated, it headed straight for it, firing short-range missiles on its
approach. The tower was able to get a few shots in before it was struck and
obliterated. Davi, slightly out of breath from the adrenaline leaving his body,
leaned against a tree for support, knowing he could not help his people now. He
watched with a fire igniting in his chest and a lump in his throat as the
village exploded and burned with each targeted missile.

Pike maneuvered
the transport while Mace dropped missiles on the stone buildings ensuring no
survivors. They both knew their weaponry program would be shut down if anyone
found out about this. Pike flew directly over the biomachines whose forms now
barely resembled their original humanoid soldier design. He slowed down to look
closely at the melting weapons.

“What the
hell did that guy shoot them with? Look at them, completely destroyed. How did
they know?” Pike asked.

“I don’t
know, General,” Mace lied. “But it can only mean one thing. There is a traitor
in our department. Don’t worry, sir. I’ll find out who it is and punish them.”
Mace had a good idea of where to start looking.

Pike had an
idea too. He suspected Colonel Ganesh and wondered why Agent Quinn hadn’t
figured this out, or reported it.

“Do it,
Mace!” Pike ordered. “Flatten them into the dirt and let’s get the hell out of
here.”

Mace took
aim at the disintegrating biomer and fired. The fungal bonding agent, dripping
from the biomachines, caught fire with a flash and burned out just as quickly,
while the already dying biomer turned to gray and silver dust.

“Oh, by the
way, you can forget about your promotion to Lt. Colonel,” Pike added. After the
village was completely destroyed, they rode back in complete silence.

The sun had
set by the time they arrived at the TRU Building. General Pike walked directly
to his office and slammed the door. He poured himself a stiff drink, then put
his feet on his desk and closed his eyes for a while. Mace Magner went to his
own office before visiting the weaponry unit. He had to make his daily
inspection of the newly activated biomachines and check the progress of their
housing pit outside the TRU Building in the field, even though it might be a
wasted effort now. When he got to his office, he saw Sergeant Bearden Leitner
leaning against the wall beside his door. This was the last person Mace wanted
to see tonight since he believed that Leitner was the one who had betrayed him.

“Sergeant,
unless you have good news for me, I suggest you walk away,” Mace said.

“Then I’m
not going anywhere, Major,” he replied. Mace raised his eyebrows with
questioning eyes.

“Come in,”
he said.

Once inside,
Bearden pulled the access key card out of his pocket and placed it on the
major’s desk.

“I’ve done
what you’ve asked of me, sir. This is an access key to Tripple Laboratories.
I’d like to be finished with my private servitude to you,” Bearden said.

“Ha!” Mace
shouted, picking up the card and looking it over. “You think you can bring me a
fucking access code and I’ll just take my eyes off of you? It’s not that easy.
And if you think you can simply walk away from our little arrangement then you
are more naïve than I thought. Besides, I know what you did. You’ve already
turned your back on me.”

“Turned my
back on you? What do you mean?” Bearden asked.

“Don’t play
dumb, Sergeant. How many people know about Tripple’s virus code? Hmm?”

“Um…you, me,
Dr. Tripple…that’s all.”

“Liar! You
told Ganesh, didn’t you?”

Bearden
gulped. He had told Ganesh…sort of. He’d given him a letter from Lee.

“Yes,”
Bearden said.

“And who did
Tripple
give
the virus code to? Did
Ganesh have a sample?”

“No! I know
of nothing leaving that lab, sir. That’s the truth!” Bearden thought about the
missing vial that Lee kept bringing up. The only other person with access was
Dana, but why would she hide a vial? Lee said no one else had been in the lab.
He’d checked the security footage.

“Obviously I
don’t believe you, Sergeant and now that I can’t trust you, your usefulness has
just run out. In fact, your time with the government is officially terminated.
Clear out your things and leave. Oh, and Leitner, you better sleep with one eye
open! Now get the hell out of here and give me some damn privacy!”

Bearden
saluted his superior for the last time with a rattled expression on his face
and walked out with his head down. He couldn’t believe it. What now? His heart
sunk at the thought of not being able to return to TRU, but even worse, he’d
have to hide because he was sure he shouldn’t take Mace’s threats lightly.
Bearden got his things together, stuffed them in a backpack, and left without
saying goodbye to anyone in the building. He didn’t feel like answering any of
their questions about why he was leaving. Ganesh wouldn’t be happy about this.
But, he would worry about that later. For now, he would deliver Dana’s letter
to her parents, who lived halfway across town. Maybe the long walk would help
him clear his head.

After he
found Dana’s parent’s home and slid the letter under the door, his head did
feel a little clearer. When Bearden was finished with his errand, the only
place he wanted to go was Tripple Laboratories to hide out with Dana and Lee,
but his shame wouldn’t let him. That, and he’d just given lab access to the man
who threatened to kill him! Instead, he walked all the way home where he would
pack up as many things as he could carry, and spend the night in a hotel, and
try to figure a way out of his predicament.