The Transmitted
By Sarah Sanderson
Chapter 1: Discoveries
"We've found something. Something big." Lindsey Parker, the Bureau of Genetic Welfare's new prodigy scientist and correspondent with the city announced.
"Well, what is it? I better be important to summon us all the way out here to the Bureau" Tobias was not in the mood for scientific garble, and frankly the Bureau still freaked him out a bit. Tris had died here, that feeling of unease would never go away no matter how many reforms the Bureau put in place.
"It is big, it's huge" She didn't seem to know how to go on and the contingent from Chicago, Tobias, Zeke and Cara stood in awkward silence as she gathered her thoughts.
"We've found evidence of someone, an outside source, tampering with our monitoring system. Or more accurately, they've been tapering with Chicago's testing systems."
"What does that even mean?" Zeke said, just as frustrated as I was to return to the place where his brother died.
"It means that all the testing machines within the city have hidden monitors in them, so we could keep an eye on the Divergent population from the moment of testing, but someone else outside the Bureau has piggybacked their technology on top of ours and have been using it to implant previously undetectable devices into the minds of everyone in the city"
"We have transmitters in our heads? All of us? Like the ones used for simulations?" Tobias could see the gears in Cara's Erudite brain spinning. What did this mean? Where they all wired for a simulation? Was the whole city just a mind-control army in the making for someone they haven't even encountered?
"No, not like the simulation transmitters. They seem harmless in that they seem to have no control over your minds. It's more like they are a spy device, monitoring your brain activity. Seemingly to no end"
"So what's the point in them then?" Zeke's voice was nervous. Tobias could understand why. Cara on the other hand looked like Christmas had come early. Technology advanced to monitor brain actively and go completely undetected – what fun! He could almost feel her itching to get her hands on a device, but that would mean pocking around in someone's head. Not that that's stopped Erudite before.
"We needed to have a look and them, try and reverse engineer them to see what their purpose in the city was. But to remove one would require extensive brain surgery that could lead to the death of the patient."
"So?" Zeke took everyone by surprise. "I mean, people die naturally every day, I'm sure the Abnegation or Erudite would be happy to give their brain for science after they die, just use one of theirs" He had a point, but Lindsey was shaking her head.
"The devices seem to deactivate when the person dies, however, um… how to say this. This is not technically new information." Tobias felt his fists clenching, whatever they had done he wasn't going to like it. "You see I found most of this information in a file that predates the memory serum accident at the Bureau" Sure the accident. One of the few reasons Tobias trusted Lindsey was that it was pretty clear she had worked out a while ago that the release of the memory serum though out the Bureau had been no accident. It had in fact been Tris's dying act. What redeemed Lindsey was that she not only keeps their secret but also seems to agree with their actions, or so her off hand comments and behaviour over the last 2 years she'd worked there would suggest. Despite being a scientist she had realised that she would rather not know, and Tobias respected her for that.
"So you're saying the Bureau knew about these transmitters in our brains before the memory wipe and, what? Forgot to tell us?" Zeke looked around at the others incredulously.
"It would seem so" Lindsey said, her mouth forming a thin line. As official correspondent with the city she disapproved of secrets between us and them. Another redeeming quality. Tobias was sure she had gone against orders to keep the city informed more than once in the past, and it seemed she'd made a habit of shedding light on the pre-accident secret Bureau didn't even remember it was hiding from us. For a moment he wondered if she had even told the Bureau this information yet or had come straight to them. The thought gave him a fleeting smile before she continued.
"According to the computer records I found on the devices they managed to get their hands on one from a living host. A patient from the city who was comatose in our medical facility" Every inch of Zeke's body stiffened and Tobias felt his blood run cold. Uriah.
"Your saying they did brain surgery on my brother without even telling us! That could have been the reason he never woke up! What did they do?! Those -" Zeke's fury seemed to go past words, which was probably a good thing for Lindsey's sake. He just stood there shaking like he was about to break apart.
"They didn't cut his head open or anything!" Lindsey's voice was pleading, but Tobias could tell my the devastated look on her face she knew the Bureau had crossed a major line. Why was she even telling us this? What was the point? "They injected a nanite sensor programed to find and latch onto the device in his brain. And it worked. We have readings from the device, showing how it monitored his brain waves to an almost astronomical level or detail. At first I couldn't work out why, what was the point? But then I got the readings recorded after the accident, the computer kept monitoring without human interference so we have notes on the devices activity right up to when Uriah's life support was turned off. Our nanite deactivated when the device did so it's the very last reading, and well…"
"Well what?!" Zeke snapped.
"The last thing the device did was transmit."
3 Years earlier
The first tangible thing Triss was aware of was her heart beating. Which was odd, considering she had just died. She wondered briefly if it had all been a dream, taking Caleb's place, surviving the Death Serum, being shot by David, her mother…
But no, her whole body felt like it weighted a tone and she couldn't open her eyes. If it had been a dream then she was dreaming still. There was a bright light above her, burning though her eye lids like the sun. And there was a lot of noise. Banging and shouting, though she couldn't tell what they were saying though the fog in her brain. Gun shots. Those where definitely gun shots. There was a loud bang, like someone slamming a door. Was she dead? She had died. And she had left Tobias behind.
Tobias
There was another feeling now, a burning in her eyes. An aching in her chest, though that was she wasn't sure was really physical. It hurt like hell though. But she deserved it right? She'd caused him pain when she'd chosen to take Caleb's place, he just didn't know it yet. How long will it take for him to hear? Will they tell him right away when he gets back? Who will do it?
The banging noise sounded again and Tris became strangely aware of something being wheeled next to her. The door slammed again and then there was a spluttering and a wurring from another room like a machine dying. Then more gun shots. Then silence. The only sound was someone next to her breathing. Breathing, how odd. Do the dead breathe? Was she breathing. She seemed to be now she was waking up more. Tris wanted to open her eyes, so asses her surroundings and know something about her condition, but the silence around her was weighing her down like she was sinking into water. She tried to push all of her strength into just opening her eyes, one last push. For a split second she saw nothing but light but then just as her lids started to fall again her eyes adjusted enough to see the figure next to her. Uriah. She'd dead. He's dead so if he's there she must be dead. They are dead together.
For a horrific moment she wondered if she was actually still in her body, dead but somehow still alive. Like when she was executed by the Erudite before Peter said he's switched out the formula. Was this death? Helpless in your own body. Where they just lying her and Uriah's bodies out together, together in death, before burial or incineration. What would happen to her mind if her body was incinerated? Would it just fly free on the wind, like a bird? That didn't sound so bad. But then if they were laying their bodies out like this then it had to be for something. Or someone. Was this how they were going to tell him, but showing him her body. Tris supposed he wouldn't believe it till he'd seen for himself. If someone had told her Tobias had died she would insist on proof. But did this mean he was coming? That she would hear his grief unable to console him? Hear the pain she had caused. Oh but she'd been forgiven! Her mother said she'd been forgiven! How could she face this?
But still the room was silent. Her mind went more cloudy, like she was breathing to hard. Her mind spun with the horror of what was going to happen, of what she had put Tobias though. But everything was going cloudy, she couldn't think. Darkness flooded the little light she could see though her closed eye lids and it took her. She could still hear Uriah breathing next to her for a few seconds before all went quiet.
3 years later
It had been almost a week and Tobias still wasn't entirely sure what this revelation meant. She would have understood. Her divergence included an aptitude for Erudite, she would know exactly what it meant, but she was dead and gone. Or was she? Cara had said consciousness transferal. That the detail of the brain wave scans transmitted at death was equal to that of a full consciousness. Tris's mind saved on a computer somewhere. He felt like he was going to be sick. Zeke didn't look much better, and for once Cara seemed to share their feelings. But of course she would. Her brother Will had died at the start of the war. We've all lost someone.
They had been told the information was to remain only between them and not announced to the city until they had more information. But Lindsey had managed to pull some stings and get them permission to send for Christina and Shauna so they could be told, as strictly speaking that way the news would still be contained to the Bureau. A wave of appreciation for Lindsey swept through Tobias but his head was still spinning too much to give her more than a thankful tight lipped Abnegation smile as she came into their temporary rooms for her daily check in.
She placed a pile of papers down on Zeke's vacant bed and turned to them with a grim expression. So not no news, but bad news. Great. Christina and Shauna joined them then, having clearly been just behind Lindsey. She filled them in quickly on what we already knew. Christina kept trying to interrupt but Tobias put his hand on her solder to get her to shut up. They'd developed their own silent way of communicating over the last few years, ways to convey comfort and support when not necessarily among those who would understand their history. Strange when what binds you most to your best friend is that you've both lost so many people grief is like breathing, constant and necessary to keep going.
Lindsey finished bringing the girls up to speed and then pulled out a sheet of paper from her bundle for reference before continuing. "As you know we've been trying to track down where the transmission went, and we may have had some luck. By running analysis on all of the transmittions coming in or out of the Beuru for the week of the accident we managed to isolate the ones that were not normal. Then we looked for which of those transitions matched up with the times of death for Uriah and Tris. Tobias supressed a shudder. Only someone who never knew Tris or Uriah could talk about them dying in such a factual way. No one in dauntless who knew Zeke would ever even put Uriah's name and the word Death in the same conversation let alone sentence. And Tris was considered such a hero in the city for how she died that even people who had never even seen her would get overly emotional talking about her, which drove Tobias nuts.
"So where is the transmission going?" Cara asked, pulling a map of our whole landmass out of her bag. Lindsey pointed out an area of grey just over 600 hundred miles away near the coast before referring to her notes. "The area was badly affected by chemical warfare about 100 years ago and it's still not officially cleared to live in but there's nothing poisonous left in the air, it's just not so great for you to breathe for extended amounts of time. It has been believed for a while that a few rebels have been using places like these as bases in order to go undetected."
"So rebels are doing this? Like the ones who right for the rights of the non-divergent?" Christina never used the Bureau's terms of Genetically Pure and Genetically Damaged, everyone was Divergent or Non-Divergent. The distaste on her face when any refereed to the non-divergent as damaged was almost laughable. Or it would be if we weren't the damaged in question. Yes we were damaged beyond repair, but that was because of the loved ones we've lost and the war we've been though, not our genetics. She was very suborn on that front. Tobias tried to be.
"It would certainly seem like this is the work of a rebel faction, but there is also a chance… well the thing is I've been looking into the old record of the Bureau as well trying to find out how the devices in the test went un noticed in the beginning when all this was first founded." Lindsey was twisting the hem of her shirt nervously. Clearly what she was telling us was need to know information the Bureau of Genetic Welfare deemed we did not need to know. "As you know in the beginning there was loads of Bureaus set up all over the place, all to the same end but each trying a deferent method. Cities without factions, cities with deferent factions, cities with whole other systems. Well some of those cities failed very quickly, but the Bureaus responsible for them still wanted to be involved. There where a few attempts to cover up failed experiments and continue on that got caught. Lots of corruption. In the files there are even implications of Bureau's taking the information they had gathered and using it for a completely different purpose. There where acknowledged whispers of brain washed armies being sold to war lords. Not sure how much of it was true, and it seems like it was all stamped out."
"But?" Tobias couldn't help it. She had clearly realised something big, and dancing around it was just making it seem worse. "But there are records of a Bureau run facility in the area the transmissions where sent too. And it was under the control of a sector that went really corrupt. That whole region is still out of our control. They've set up their own governing body separate of us and everything. There is almost no contact between them and us, and no one gets though the borders without a very good reason or a very good lie." She was refusing to look at them and Tobias could guess why.
"You sound like someone who's tried" Finally she looks at him. "Well if the transmissions have gone there, and even some of the rumours are true, everyone who has ever died from your city (and possibly others) is now in the possession of them. I wanted the Bureau to help me get them out, to give us permission to go get them" Her jaw was set. She had to be Genetically Pure to work for the Bureau but Tobias had never considered what other faction she would have an aptitude for other that Erudite. From the look on her face Dauntless seems like a fair bet. He'd have to ask her about it someday.
Christina was quick on the uptake "You asked them and they said no. That's why your acting like we're about to jump you" She never did lose her Candor frankness. Lindsey nodded yes. Tobias gripped the metal of the camp bed he was sitting on. Their loved ones, everyone's lost loved ones where potentially out there somewhere and they were to just sit on their hands and pretend otherwise. It was becoming clear why they had wanted to keep this information from the city at large, there would be riots in the streets. "I managed to get their authorisation to continue research and try and uncover something more tangible than a transmission location. Something they would consider sending people for"
"More tangible? Like what?" Zeke snapped.
Three years previously
When Tris woke up the first thing she was aware of was Uriah. She rolled over on her hospital bed to look at him. Yup, definitely Uriah, and he's definitely breathing. And not coma breathing either. He was just asleep, even snoring a little. Not trusting herself to sit up yet she stretched her arms out and gave him a shove. His eyes flew open and he stared at her wild eyed.
"What happened? Where are we?"
"Well don't freak out, but I think we're dead"
Uriah sat bolt upright and threw his legs over the side of his bed before swaying dangerously. "How?" He looked like he was going to be sick. "Well, you got caught in an explosion and then you were in a coma for a while. They were planning on turning off your life support after Zeke and your mum got to say goodbye." Uriah didn't look as shocked by this as she would have expected. "Yeah but what about you?" Tris felt an uncontrollable urge to grin, like a dauntless showing off battle scars. "Me? Got shot full of holes saving the city from a memory wipe" Uriah just shook his head slowly. "And you're grinning about this?" He sounded incredulous but there was a slight smile on his face too. "Hey we may die but our Dauntless bravado lives on" Tris said, pushing herself up to sit faceing him.
"Yeah but apparently so do we... notice anything weird? Like how we're breathing? And there are no dead loved ones greeting us?" He tried to keep his smile going but faulted a bit at the end. He hadn't been the same since he'd lost Marline and Lynn. Them not being here but be crushing him, just like the absence of Tris's parents was her.
"Where the hell are we?" He was looking around now, and Tris joined in. The room was dimly lit from above and was filled with empty hospital beds. "There was more light before, I remember waking up and there was all this noise." Tris slowly got to her feet, testing them before putting her full weight on them. The floor was stone and the chill seemed to seep up her legs from her bare feet. Both she and Uriah where dressed in hospital gowns. "I think I see a light switch over here" she felt along the wall and sure enough when she flicked the switch the room flooded with light. "That's better" She turned back to Uriah who was stareing at her wided eyes. There was something strange about his eyes… one was brown and one was green. Did he always have eyes like that?
"Tris… your hair" What? She'd cut it but he had seen her with short hair. "It's brown" She grabbed a chunk of her hair and pulled it in front of her eyes and sure enough, her light blonde was gone replaced by brown. The same colour as Caleb's. "Well your eyes are different colours" She said a little too defensively. Uriah jumped out of bed too and started searching the room for a mirror while Tris went straight for the door. It was unlocked which was a relief, at least they weren't prisoners. Outside was a long empty hallway. The silence of the place was pressing in on her ears. She was sure there had been noise earlier.
"Tris!" Uriah called her back into the room. He was holding a load of files he'd found. "Look at this, they've got everyone, all the people who have died in the city since the simulation" Tris grabbed the files. Sure enough, there they were. Names and faces. "These image look like they've been taken from security cameras, like the ones in the Bureau. Amongst all the dead the familiar faces burned Tris's eyes. Lynn killed fighting the Erudite, Marline who Tris failed to save from the suicide simulation, Eric shot by Tobias for treason, Max killed by Lynn at the negotiations, countless Abnegation faces and the faces of the Dauntless Divergents. Tris's father and mother, and Will who she'd killed herself. A lump rose in her throat. His death still cut her deep, even though she'd decided in Erudite that she wanted to live. She'd wanted to live.
Sudden hysterical laughter took Tris and she fell to the floor as her whole body shook. Uriah looked at her like she'd gone mad. She probably had. They were dead but they weren't, and they are greeted by images of their lost loved ones, of the victims of the war, but not by their loved ones in person. What was this? Uriah crouched down next to her and rapped his arm securely around her as her laughter turned to sobbing.
"Four – four – promised your brother he'd keep you s-s-safe" She gurgled out
"And I promised Four I'd keep you safe. Looks like we're all failures" He was still smiling but there was so much sadness in his eyes. Tris kept sobbing for a while until she calmed down to a point where she was mostly just hiccupping pathetically. She hated that she couldn't make herself stop crying. She should have more control. But Uriah didn't seem to care. When she spoke there was steal in her voice, making Uriah who had sunk to the floor with her look to her strangely before adopting her resolve.
"We're going to find them. Everyone we've lost. And we can be forgiven"
DUN DUN DUN lol I will hopefully post chapter two sometime next month. I have other fancitions and a Uni Degree to attend to in the meantime. But that gives you all plenty of time to review and tell me your thoughts and theories. Seriously nothing gives me life more than reviews, the longer the better!
Oh and I have just finished reading a fantastic Four/Tris fanfiction that's Four's pov of Insurgent –I highly recommend it. It's called Killing Four and it's by wee kraken. Everyone is in character, it's so well written, and it's completed which is always wonderful. Go check it out
