When you're a bastard born of science, familial terms become relative. Technically, I suppose that all of us are related to each other somehow. If not through the same human genetic donors, then we have a common cat or dog ancestor somewhere. Family are the people that have your back. The person who took a bullet in the leg for you in Uzbekistan, the girl that took your work shift when you were down with the shakes so that they didn't catch you and dissect you, the people that stood by your side or in some cases the ones that you ran away with. For all of the times of heard someone call a fellow soldier brother or sister or lover, I'd never heard the word used. That's why it brought everything to such a ringing halt when Joshua said it.
"Father?" The half-man, half-dog hybrid struck us all momentarily dumb and my gaze shifted automatically to the man to whom the question was addressed.
He was an elderly man, undoubtedly tall in his youth, but bent now that age had caught up with him. An unremarkable looking fellow really, except that his eyes seemed to glow with an impossible light as he smiled at all of us. We might have gone on staring at him all day if the soldier escorting our intruder hadn't cleared his throat.
"Sir, we caught this man at the south entrance, he and that boy just wandered right in and asked for Joshua." The soldier whose name I pulled from the deeper recesses of my perfect memory, cleared looked down now, seeming almost abashed.
"Was there something else Hale?" If I hadn't known better I would have said that Hale was deeply ashamed.
"He just got right past the guard sir." Hale's cheeks flushed a deep shade of crimson. "And he also knew our sign language from Manticore."
Ah so there was the source of embarrassment, it was inconceivable that someone should know the secret hand signals which we used to communicate. Had we been back at Manticore, the punishment for a stranger having learned our codes would have been severe. I shudder to myself at the thought.
"Well, I assure both of you young fellas that I have a very good reason for learning your code." My attention turns back to the old man. This time I notice the younger man at his side. He's about my age, with sandy brown hair and a slight muscular build. Possibly an x-5, but some ingrained sense tells me that he isn't one of us. Are these men familiars? They don't seem menacing, if anything they're practically beaming good will at us.
"Ah of course, introductions would be in order. As you may have guessed from dear Joshua's exclamation, I am Dr. R.J. Sandeman. This young man here is my devoted student and invaluable assistant, Jacob." I felt my jaw drop to somewhere around my knees. There were just too many questions to ask. "Now time is short, so I'd best get down to business. I guess I might as well give you a bit of background, the story will make rather more sense that way."
It all began over three thousand years ago. Now I can see your panic, but don't worry the tale is more quickly told. It all began three thousand years ago in Seour, the capital of the Phoenician empire. There twelve scholars of great renown met once a year to discuss their advancements in science. Then one year on the night of the meeting, a great revolt broke out in the town square, protesting the injustices committed by the ruling class on the peasants. In the bloodthirsty mobs, two of the council were killed. The remaining ten men were blinded by their grief at the loss of their brethren. They saw both the injustice of the ruling class, and also the savagery of the peasants. On that night they vowed that though it might take more years than could be counted, they would use their science to create a superior race. Drawing from ancient mythos they selected the name Manticore to symbolize their society, and they passed this secret on too their sons.
The ten scholars were men of peace. They envisioned a gradual uplifting of the human race during which all of the human race would benefit from their genius. Unfortunately the sons did not all have such honorable intentions. Two thousand years from that fateful night, the aims of the society had changed. Many of the sons and daughters felt that they shouldn't have to share their gift with the world. That it would be better instead to keep their abilities secret and then one day supplant humans as the premiere race on the planet. They dreamed of the Day of Silence, the day when a plague would wipe the weaker peoples out leaving only themselves.
Now the focus of Manticore's finest minds was split between the selective genetic enhancement of their race, and creating a toxin which they would eventually use to wipe out the human race. They found their answer in the Naja haje, an Egyptian cobra with a neurotoxin so strong that it could kill immediately. Now they had to find a way to disseminate the poison, and also to give their brothers and sisters immunity.
My line is one of the oldest of the familiar lineages. Four hundred years ago Thadeus Sandeman discovered the key to our survival in a small village outside of Sicily. You see, in ancient times Sicily was a part of the Egyptian empire and it was found that certain people had a natural immunity to the Naje haje's poison. He also found that certain members of the Mediterranean race had a special protein complex in their skin which allowed for variable color mutations. After an extensive search, he found a woman who possessed both of these traits. Lucia was as beautiful as she was vicious. When he finally tracked her down she was only days away from being hung for the brutal murder of her husband. He saved her life, and to assure the position of our family line in the Day he bound her to himself through marriage.
It took three hundred years to perfect the snake toxin, to mutate it into a waterbourne killer. At the same time Lela's blood was dispersed among our people so that our tolerance to the poison built. The recipe for the toxin were hidden in a safe place, protected until the Day came. Lela's daughters were bred so that in the presence of certain enzymes, runes describing the ingredients of the poison would appear on their skin. The men of my line traditionally carried the DNA which created the matching enzyme.
I was born with the peace loving spirit of my very earliest ancestors. That I would someday have an heir who would destroy humanity was more than I could bear. At the age of forty two I ran away from the enclave of the familiars. With my brilliance in science it was only a matter of time before the then strong American military recruited me for their intelligence division. Hiding my true purposes and the existence of the familiars, I suggested to my superiors the possibilities of creating a race of super soldiers. They were only too happy to supply the funding for project Manticore. As cover, I created the perfect soldiers which they desired. At the same time though, I carried on my own agenda.
I created each series of soldier with a purpose for the Day. With my access to the records of the familiars, I knew exactly what I was going to be going up against. Each Anomaly as you call them, even they have an ultimate purpose. The x series were to be the soldiers, the invasion force. Then into my perfected x-5s I placed the genetics which Lucia and Sandeman passed down, so that in them the formula for the cure which I had formulated would be hidden and protected.
Originally, I had intended to put the protein and enzyme complexes into several x-5 soldiers. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me Manticore sent one of my earlier creations on a mission to assassinate a politician who also happened to be a familiar. In short, my work was discovered and my whereabouts where traced before I could complete my work. I had only had time to place the protein in one baby girl, and the enzyme in one baby boy.
The head of the familiar order had me captured and I was brought before him in closed council. He had discovered in the years since my disappearance that I had removed the gene for production of the rune enzyme from my young son, Ames. To prevent panic, he didn't tell anyone about this disaster. He was faced with a hard decision. The other familiars were crying out for my death, but as he knew I was the only living source of the enzyme. With my help he faked my own death and I went into seclusion on a tiny island off the coast of Jamaica.
My imprisonment would have spelled death for the human race had not provenance placed young Jacob here in my path. I went through a constant succession of young guards, most of them brainwashed with the fact of their own superiority. Then I found a kindred spirit, a peace loving soul willing to put his life on the line for a greater cause. Jacob became one of my guards six years ago when he was just a lad, and since then we have plotted my escape.
"Now I have found my way back to my children."
"I hate to say this, but we're missing the most important ingredient in your plan."
"Ah 494, you have my father's eyes you know? Obviously you inherited them along with the DNA for the key enzyme. I had already heard through my informants that my dear 452 was captured. Now its time we went to retrieve her from Lela, isn't it?"
