Separation
"Wake up…"
"Slowly now, watch your head."
A voice, gentle and soft like cotton, echoes through the unknown room.
I open my eyes slowly, vision blurring from the sudden invasion of bright light; I am on the floor, that much I can tell. To my left is a miniature house, probably 3 feet tall at most. To my right sits a vailed woman, the curves against the cloth around her body tells me such.
"Where am I?" I ask painfully, my throat is extremely dry.
"A visualization of our link, the Digimind." The woman responds as she extends her slender arms upward, bringing my attention to the blue sky above.
"The Digimind? I thought special equipment had to be used to even enter it." I reply, in a tone of disbelief clearly breaking the empty space between us. "I was…in Germany, on a mission. There was an attack and then I woke up here."
"That is correct, Agent is the one who brought you here." The vailed woman replies.
"So, this is Agent's connection with me." I think to myself inside my head as I softly scratch the back of my head, running my fingers through my hair in thought. "Why are you here, and who are you." I ask as I stare at the cloaked figure. Her hair and nearly the entirety of her face is covered by her hood, the only thing visible being her lips and her neck. Based on the lack of any signs of age I come to the conclusion that the woman is rather young, although her voice is very mature and lady-like.
The woman simply smiles underneath her hood, she then extends her right arm towards me and snaps her fingers. "It is good that you are asking questions, however, I cannot provide you with the answers you seek." The world around us shifts and turns, mixing and reforming itself like a canvas warping underneath a painter's brush. And then, silence.
The light around us vanishes, plunging me into an ever-expanding darkness.
"H-hey! What happened!?" I shout into the void around me. My voice echoes, growing in volume from a whisper to a sickening shout.
"You will come to understand that your father did what he did in order to protect you." The woman whispers into my ear. I quickly turn around in a defensive stance, only to be met with the same darkness.
"What does my dad have anything to do with this!" I shout angrily as I begin running away. A light suddenly bursts into existence in front of me. "A door?" I think to myself as the light begins to flicker and rebuild itself into the familiar shape of a door.
As I approach it, the light begins to hum, growing as the distance between us is closes.
The light suddenly shoots forward like a bullet. I close my eyes and put my arms in front of me to protect my body from the possible harm.
I pause and wait to hear some sort of signal that something has happened, a sound, a touch, a feeling, anything. After a couple of seconds, I decide to open my eyes. I swallow hard as my brain attempts to process what just happened.
"I was just hit, wasn't I? I should be bleeding If that's true. Check." My frontal lobe attempts to rationalize as it shouts to me. I nod to myself and slowly turn my gaze downwards towards my abdomen. No damage, not even a scratch.
I turn my gaze upwards once again and analyze the room I am in. White tiled floor, no windows to be seen but there are multiple ventilation vents above me, countless wires converge underneath my feet, creating a small layer of black atop the floor. Everything connecting to a large tube in the middle the room, and within it, a woman suspended in some sort of green substance.
The sound of footsteps puts a sudden halt to my analysis.
I search around the room further for a suitable hiding place. I decide to hide underneath a nearby table.
"Her status hasn't changed in the last 2 weeks, Persica is worried." A male voice echoes from the hall outside.
"We can't do much for her, the fact we are doing this in secret is already worrying enough as it is. Leihart announced their first official release of their doll earlier last week. We can't unveil her anymore." Another voice answered.
"That sounds like…dad?" I think to myself as I hear the turning of keys in the door in front of me. "Shit" I whisper to myself, burying myself deeper underneath the table to hide.
"What do you mean!?" A man wearing a scientist's jacket protests as he and my father enter the room. "We've worked on this project for almost 30 years! We can't scrap all this work for nothing! She may be your wife but Persica is not the lead in this research, you are."
The younger version of my father sighs and leans against the door frame, his head tilting slightly to look at the tube in the middle of the room, and the woman inside.
"What we have created here should never see the light of day." He speaks softly and quietly. "We have broken many laws, many humane ethics just to create her. If people found out about everything we did just to create one of them, we would be executed immediately."
"What..." I whisper to myself inside my head.
"This is our legacy!" The other man slams his fist against the wall, cracking it slightly. A small trail of blood appearing on his palm. "this is our contribution to humanity! I will not dispose of her!"
"Compose yourself Gruwer, you'll wake her." My father whispers angrily as he turns around to check on the woman inside the tube.
"Welcome back Professor. Are you doing well today?" Asks a female voice inside my head. My body shudders at the realization that the woman inside the tube never moved her lips to speak, not even once.
"T…telepathy?" I think to myself as I begin to shake slightly in fear. "Just what the hell did they make…"
The woman inside the tube stretches and allows her nude figure to be completely exposed. She slowly opened her eyes, revealing an unnaturally beautiful pair of green eyes. Or at least, they were green at first.
Her eyes slowly shifted to red, then back to green and lastly settled into a warm sky blue.
"What the hell…" I whisper to myself underneath the table.
The fluid inside the tube begins to disappear as its sucked out from vents underneath her feet. Once its fully drained the tube begins to open, allowing the woman inside to walk out freely.
"I see Doctor Gruwer is with you today, I welcome you both. I deeply apologize for my appearance, Lady Persica did not tell me that you would be visiting today." She bows deeply, covering her exposed breasts with her left arm, and her lower body with her left.
The younger version of my father quickly removes his jacket and wraps it around the woman. "That's alright, this is an unscheduled visit." He zips up the jacket and backs away from the now 'clothed' woman.
"Allow me to congratulate you Professor." The woman smiles as she fixes the jacket to fit around her body and moves closer to my father.
"What about?" My father asks curiously.
"Lady Persica's pregnancy of course, she told me that your first child is expected to be female." The woman smiles wide and places her index and middle finger on his forehead slowly. "I pray for your future happiness; may your child grow strong."
"First child? I'm older than Marina, they should already have me." I think to myself as I watch the scene unveil in front of me. The woman suddenly stops in front of the desk I'm under and turns her gaze towards me. Our eyes meeting shortly after.
December 24th, 2035 (Father's POV).
"Alpha?" I ask as I inspect the face of the woman in front of me. I take the hands out of my lab coat's pocket and move closer to her.
She does not answer; a sudden look of surprise overtakes her earlier smile. I follow her gaze and turn my eyes to look at the bottom of the table beside us.
Empty.
"Alpha, did you see something?" I ask, confused as I move closer to her.
She suddenly snaps out of her daze and turns her eyes towards me once again. "My apologies Professor, I was thinking about a distant memory."
"I see, please make sure to run maintenance on yourself as much as possible, that was very unlike you just now." I say to her as I sight and lean against the wall. "we have news for you as well."
"Is that so?" She asks genuinely surprised. "Is it about lady Persica's concerns regarding my body?"
"Yes." I reply immediately.
She turns her eyes towards the floor and closes her eyes, awaiting the words to exit my mouth.
"We ran multiple calculations and tests…we don't know how you did it, but your body has completely cloned a normal female's organs." I relay the news to her, a slight tone of disbelief in my voice. "your reproductive system is faulty. Your native cells are restricting the production of necessary materials for you to fully conceive."
Gruwer moves in front of me and smiles wide at Alpha.
"This is excellent news Alpha! This is the start to fixing the world's decline in population." He smiles wide as he greedily shakes her hand.
She smiles back and gently bows to Gruwer. "Thank you, professor. I am very happy that I was able to meet everyone's expectations."
"Testing will start next Monday. I suggest you prepare yourself mentally." Persica speaks out from behind everyone.
Gruwer and me turn around in surprise at the sudden appearance of Persica. She was certainly a small build woman, but her ability to appear out of thin air sometimes was nothing short of alarming.
The people in front of me seize to move, their bodies frozen in time.
I exit from my hiding place and stand in front of my father, facing the unknown woman.
"Alpha" I speak to myself as I inspect her face closer. No impurities, no imperfections. Skin as white as snow and hair as soft and white as clouds.
A picture-perfect being.
An impossible being.
Despite never seeing the woman before, a sudden stab of melancholy strikes at my heart, causing my eyes to water slightly.
Without warning, the floor beneath us caves in and I fall into a seemingly never-ending chasm, only to finally land on a pile of flowers and hay.
I cough as I struggle to bring air back into my lungs, once my breathing stabilizes, I scan the scene around me.
A cottage house is visible to my far left, probably 10 minutes away from where I am right now if I sprint towards it. A water tower stands firm in front of me, the words "Revision 11" are engraved to its metallic side in a bright, golden font. To my right is a stable with a couple of horses inside, the door is closed but I can tell it is occupied thanks to the numerous noises coming from within.
I carefully stand up and dust off my clothes, I decide to unstrap my bulletproof vest and throw it on the floor, My shoulders are deeply thankful for this.
"The area is probably four acres at most judging from the distance between the buildings, I don't recognize the terrain. There's hardly any places with this much green left…" I whisper to myself as I begin climbing the water tower using its side-ladder. I take in the scenery as I climb slowly, the sound of steel-toe combat boots hitting against hard metal echo through the area.
"The world was once a much different place; peace was a very possible option." The cloaked woman speaks out to me from the top of the tower. My gaze shoots upwards in surprise as her figure covers the sunlight in front of me. "careful with your step." She suggests at the same time that I nearly slip and fall to my possible death underneath as one of the steps of the ladder suddenly breaks.
"How did you…" I ask as I follow the falling piece of metal with my eyes until I strikes the ground with a loud thump.
"A woman's intuition I suppose." She responds, giggling to herself shortly after.
"Where are we now?" I ask as I pull my body up into the platform of the water tower's top.
"A property which was once owned by your mother and father." She responds softly. "Your father came here shortly after Persica's death to grieve." She continues, lifting her left hand to point at 2 figures sitting down in a chair outside of the cottage house.
"I see father and the woman from earlier…. Alpha was it?" I ask as I turn to face the vailed woman once again, only to be met with a vacant space where she was standing. "Gone again." I sigh to myself, turning my gaze back to the two in front of the house.
