Chapter 2
"Welcome, Dr. McGivers," said a tall, well-groomed man standing in the center of the room. He started toward her to shake her hand, and it gave her a moment to assess the room.
It was long and narrow, with a low ceiling. The walls and floor were the same white linoleum, but there were absolutely no windows. In fact, with the door shut, it resembled a very elongated bomb shelter. The middle of the room was empty, but lining the sides were equal rows of waist-high tubes measuring about seven feet long. They resembled pill capsules, with half one color, and half another. Although instead of colors, the tubes were half metal, with trinkets, knobs, and lit buttons displaying across them, and the other half was clear plexiglass. Within them was some kind of liquid, illuminated by a gentle blue light from below. The liquid reflected the blue light, giving each tube the appearance of glowing. And within the liquid… within every single tube… was a human being.
Mara's heart leapt into her throat. The breath left her lungs, and she suddenly felt weak and cold.
"Are you alright?" the man said, and she realized he was standing in front of her, hand outstretched, waiting for her to shake it.
"Yes, yes. My apologies," she began, shaking his hand. Her arm waved like jello as her own weakness met his very strong grip.
"My name is Henry Pierce, and this is my facility," he paused with a wry, handsome smile. "Don't worry, Doctor. We get that reaction a lot. Please, come look at them."
Mara felt drunk as she stumbled forward, peering down on the nearest tube. The subject was naked, with all manner of tubes and syringes protruding from his body. Conveniently, the metal bottom half of the capsule covered his lower extremities, but as Mara looked up, she could see females suspended in other capsules, their naked breasts visible under the sea of wires and tubes penetrating their bodies. Mara felt sick for a moment, but swallowed it and tried to disguise it as awe.
"How many are there?" she asked quietly, walking around the tube she was standing at to peer into the next one.
"Seventy-three," Pierce replied with pride. "Thirty-seven men, thirty-six women. All physically and mentally superior."
Mara could see the physical aspect—the men were built like male models, the women like athletes. Even suspended in this liquid, Mara could tell that each and every one of them was the epitome of the human form. What she wondered, though, was how they knew that the subjects were mentally superior.
"They are very impressive," Mara said, resting her hands on the glass of the tube and examining the woman beneath. "But how do you know they are mentally superior?"
Pierce smiled, obviously happy to answer the question. "Do you see how her eyes move as if she were dreaming?" Pierce said, stepping forward to admire the subject as well.
Mara nodded, noticing that it was true—the subject's eyes moved back and forth rapidly beneath her eyelids, as if she were in deep REM sleep.
"That connection at the base of her skull," Pierce began, pointing to a black coil that attached to the back of the woman's neck. "That is made of a revolutionary fiber cable that melds with human tissue. For a few months now, we have been feeding them a steady stream of knowledge. Like plugging in to a computer. Their skills will be extensive, and they will already speak seven different languages. With the capacity to learn new languages within days."
Pierce was shining like a child proud of his science project. For all intents and purposes… he was.
"What is their molecular age?" Mara asked, moving on to the next capsule—a male. His eyes moved the same way.
"We manufactured their genes in such a way that they would reach maturity within a matter of months, but stop there. Most of them stopped at the age-equivalent of twenty-six to twenty-nine," Pierce said, fiddling with a few buttons on the subject's capsule.
The man's eyes fluttered, and his hands jerked once. Mara desperately wanted to ask what he had done, but sensed she didn't want to know.
"They won't age?" she asked distractedly, leaning down to closely examine the facial structure.
"They will, just extremely slowly. Their physiology is remarkably like ours, if you can believe it. It's just that… everything about us that could be improved—strength, intelligence, healing, aging—it has all been engineered into them.
"Their cells regenerate at triple the rate of ours," Pierce continued, pressing a few more buttons. A robotic arm appeared from the side of the tank, a scalpel clutched in its pincers.
"I really don't need a demonst…" Mara began, but it was too late.
The scalpel sliced the man's torso, and Mara was distinctly aware of the twitch that ran his entire body, and the grimace that momentarily graced his face.
Mara's eyes went back to the wound just in time to see the skin graft itself back together in a matter of seconds. The blood that had seeped into the capsule disintegrated into the blue hue fairly quickly.
Mara looked back to the man's sleep-like face. "They feel pain?" she asked quietly, recalling the momentary grimace.
"Yes, we found that crucial to self-preservation. While it is unlikely the subject can be harmed by much, if they are, the pain register helps to preserve vital organs," Pierce said, pressing another button, and letting the robotic arm return to its place along the side of the capsule.
"When will you…" she paused, unsure of the vernacular to use. 'Activate' seemed too robotic, 'awaken' sounded too human. These subjects seemed… somewhere in the middle.
"Tomorrow, 0-800. A few of our requested medical professionals have not arrived yet. Now, if you have no more questions, I have a few things to do in order to prepare," he said with a genuine smile.
"Of course, Director. I'll see you tomorrow morning," she said, turning for the elevator.
"Prepare to be amazed, Doctor!" Pierce called with glee.
She did not feel at all amazed. Sick and anxious better described it.