Verse 4

"I've called this meeting to discuss the measures needed to be taken in regards to #63. The inevitable has happened, and her body is finally failing. Lab #11 has found that in all likelihood, her body will fail within the next year. Anticipating this, they have brought the issue before us, the council…"

Very few of the council were actually here. Mizushima couldn't help but notice the ones missing were all supporters of Nicolai, along with Nicolai himself.

What a childish way to play the game, Mizushima thought. Not that he cared much. He didn't like getting involved the politics, but such a display was really uncalled for.

"All members absent get no comments, nor vote in this matter. They knew before they decided not to come." The council head stated the obvious, but it was a needed formality.

Mizushima immediately spoke up. "One course of action could be to allow #63 to meet Iceman before you choose the next course of action." That was, from his view, the best course of action. It would yield interesting results, and they can still at any time freeze her, as they probably would. But he knew it was futile. They were all much too afraid of her powers to allow that one concession. Besides, though he thought it was the best scientifically, he agreed that so many things could go wrong.

"Noted. Other views."

Dismissed, forgotten that fast. Not even discussed. He expected it, but it still aggravated him. Everyone seemed frightened of the wrong things. They were afraid they were going to lose a research specimen, instead of where those powers came from. And so, they try to control something they don't understand. They had done the equivalent of sealing her in ancient myths, yet still anomalies appeared. It was psychokinesis, telepathy. Things only seen in science-fiction and fantasy. Yet they ignored such things and worried more about whether their 'specimen' was going to expire before they researched everything.

It was all going to end badly.

Mizushima stopped listening at that point. He knew what was going to be picked: a new cryo-technique of freezing separate parts, developed long before Iceman was unfrozen. I was perfected, unlike the new full-body type, so it was safer for preserving their specimen. Just not the whole.

Things had seemed to have been going downhill ever since Iceman was first found. 200 years ago, people were fairly content living underground. Their past wasn't hidden, like in many old stories. People understood that they would have to wait, that this was their fault. However, at that time, two things happened. Iceman was found, and the surface was announced "recovered." Humankind, though, was deemed unfit to survive on the surface.

Being unfit was anticipated, so slow genetic therapies had been undergone expecting a recover time of around 1500-2000, with help from humans. What had happened was that the surface recovered in a short 600 years. Mother nature truly was amazing, to be able to recover so quick, even with slow help from humans. An explosion of life 100 years before Iceman was found signaled the return of a basic ecological balance. That left Humanity in distress though. Their release from underworld life was denied them by the quick recover. No time was given for humans to be able to adapt and find cures to new pathogens. New ones appeared too fast to catalog. So humanity fell back on its best hope.

The quick fix.

But quick fixes rarely work out. It was all going to end badly, Mizushima thought.

"Mizushima, any other input?" The council looked at him. It was a simple, non-written rule to ask him at the end of every meeting for any last input. Since he was usually the only one who was never on any political side, his thoughts were generally thought to only be scientific. It irritated him though, because his input was always ignored if the meeting was one-sided politically, as today. He shook his head no. He had nothing more to say to these people. If Nicolai's group had been here, maybe it would have worked, since he represented the extreme other side of the argument. But without the balancing factor, his ideas go unheeded.

"Then, beginning at 1700 hours tomorrow, the systematic dis-assembly and freezing of #63 will begin. Lab #11 will prep and be ready for the procedure by 1200 hours, and will standby as Lab #12 moves the specimen. In the event of some catastrophic event happening, deadly force is permitted on any trying to prevent the specimen movement, including the specimen itself. No excuses on failure. Meeting adjourned."

Mizushima's lab, #13, would have nothing to do with the whole process, as they were all working with Iceman. Fine with him. He found this distasteful and unnecessary, to name a few adjectives.

_______________

So why did he find himself in front of #63's restraining cell? After all, while distasteful, and inefficient in the long run, freezing her would still be one correct course of action to take. Why did he feel so disturbed then? What about this wasn't right?

#63 was blindfolded, strapped to a human-shaped table at a 45 degree angle. It would be flat, but her large black wings would get crushed otherwise. Her arms and legs were spread open, and she was naked. Today, nothing but one small needle was stuck into her, but usually multitudes of needles and tubes were stuck into her, constantly testing and measuring various things. He had been here a few times in the past before Iceman, on research, and knew of her powers. Her straps were the densest metal created by man, and were nearly 50 cm thick, completely covering the ends of her limbs below the wrists and ankles. The rest of her body was strapped down with less thick 10cm bands over her neck, chest, and waist. Her blindfold was a form-fitted visor that constantly showed some image or another, at the researcher's whim. It was how they communicated visually. They had a modified holo-projector that displayed inside the little world that she saw. Food was administered remotely, and exercise was forced movement of the limbs.

All-in-all, a pitiful existence.

Mizushima turned on the speakers to talk. "Good afternoon, #63, how are you doing today?"

"Ah, Mizushima is here today! Are you here to ask questions again?" came the scarily innocent voice.

Mizushima turned off the recorder. He didn't want the next part to be heard by anyone else. "Did you know your father is awake?"

"Father is finally awake?"

Why was he doing this? It seemed so, cruel. "Yes, for a little while."

"Where, where?!"

He shouldn't be doing this. "Here, I can let you see him. But only a little bit, ok? If you're a good girl, maybe more later." Mizushima changed her view from the generic view of a drab room, to Iceman's room. Iceman was awake and reading from the computer in his room.

"Father…" sighed the chained woman/girl. "#63 was old, much much older than him, but still her voice remained childish. It was a young voice, and a young body also. Once of her wonders that was researched endlessly, along with her telekinetic/telepathic powers straight out of fantasy.

But, like all biological systems, her body had a lifespan. Hers was nearing its limit. Though young in looks, her internals were weakening. So she was to be piecemealed and frozen for future generations. It was scientifically the best thing to do, next to letting her directly meet Iceman, but since that would never happen due to their fear of that meeting, this was best.

Those powers, though, must be traced back to Iceman. His genes were what allowed the maruta combinations to work. Straight splicing never worked, but somehow, with Iceman's genetic influence, it evened out to viable. Why? Nobody knew yet. Various theories abounded, but maybe humans would never know. Mizushima didn't care too much though. Those powers were outside of his line of work with Iceman and the base maruta series. Maybe outside the line of work of…

"BEEP!!!" His holo-pad was blaring a warning. Intruder in the com controls? Why in the com controls? And… opening Iceman's room? What the hell? Who was trying to force their way through to there? And so blatantly? His warning turned off abruptly, signaling the end of the override. Saying he had to go, Mizushima rushed out of #63's holding cell and towards Iceman's control room. The computers were saying nothing was happening, but he couldn't be sure. He opened an audio channel to the room, and listened.

"Thank you…"

Apparently, he only caught the end, and he couldn't tell who it was. Thanking god or whatever that no one had been around, he started up the holo projector.

"Hey, did anything happen? It seemed like something forced its way in here."

Iceman appeared to know what he was talking about, but gave a vague answer. "No, not really."

"I see. Well, it's not a big deal." He wasn't going to push the issue. No harm seemed to of been done. He had left #63 abruptly, shutting down her visor and the speaker into the room. Oh well, she was going to be frozen soon.

Mizushima tried looking for a recording of the message sent over the com channel, but it was as if it really had never happened. Even the warning log had disappeared from the system. Certainly odd, very odd. He couldn't even find any non-networked devices that had recorded vibrations from that room that could have been from the speakers.

Maybe, he thought, it had been a fluke. Or maybe he was thinking too much. Either way, he was tired. This day hadn't been productive. He closed the holo projector, and left the lab. Mizushima made his way back to his "house" through the many hallways. All so artificial, but very few actually thought of it that way.

Thinking again, he opened his door to solitude.