We finally reached the floating city of Tiphares… oh wait, no. The Institute. We reached the Institute.

Begin Recording

Foreign Land

Recording by Scribe Ellison

The boy synth's tour started with the places he felt were important: the canteen and the shop. Behind the counter at the commissary a synth recommended different 'food supplements' and said it had been programmed to accept 'surface currency' just for me. I let the boy pick something for each of us and handed over some caps in exchange for two bars of pressed nutrients. Not bad but not much like food either. I could see why the kid missed noodles. We ate our bars as we walked over to the 'requisitions vendor' who greeted him with an update, "You are not authorized to purchase any more energy cells on order of your teacher."

So of course I bought a few more for the kid, just for fun since the synth had no problem selling them to me. And I tried to bargain for a whole crate of toothpaste. I didn't get it; consumable hygiene products were unavailable in quantity. "The manufacturing process has been optimized to match the rate of consumption. Bulk orders must be placed in advance." So I placed one, with no idea if I'd be able to collect it.

After this I asked my guide, "All right, I need to find somebody named Doctor Li and check out Bioscience for starters."

The boy said, "Bioscience is more fun, you won't believe what we have1 come on!"

As we walked back over the water and under the trees in the central room a woman stopped me to say, "Father has done remarkable things! I would not exist were it not for him." She smiled warmly and kept walking.

I looked down at the boy for confirmation, "Is she..?"

"She's a synth. You can tell by her clothes. They do work here."

She didn't seem enslaved, not like the terrified synths who came looking for the Railroad for help. The boy pointed me up a ramp to the Bioscience wing and another synth said, "We are honored to welcome you here."

"Everybody knows who I am."

"You're Father's mother, and his guest." The synth confirmed, still smiling. That was spooky, the way everybody else was fine with my son being twice my age when I was still very not fine with it.

My son's copy led me through an arch marked with the green symbol of the Bioscience division, into another wing of the Institute. It was another very white, domed space with the walls lined with plants growing in pools of some kind of gel. No weeds, no bugs.

That seemed amazing enough to me but the boy pointed, "Look at that!"

I looked. I laughed. "Oh wow. Are they real?"

Behind glass on one side of the room two gorillas shuffled around inside a small habitat. Real, full size gorillas. We could hear them grunting and smell their animal odor through the glass.

The boy laughed too, probably at my amazement. "Sure they're real. Real synths. That's Doctor Karlin, don't bother talking to him. That's the head of Bioscience."

He was a young man, scruffy and approachable. "So good to have you here! Doctor Clayton Holdren, head of the bioscience committee. I can't wait for you to see the work we're doing, it's truly amazing."

"I'm interested. What do you do here?"

"As the name implies, bioscience includes fields such as botany, genetics and medicine. Our most important directive is to ensure the health and well being of everyone in the Institute. To that end, we cultivate highly specialized breeds of flora, for use in food and medicine. We've even started to explore the idea of synthetic animal life. You can see the gorillas, they're really just a pet project at this point but the potential is exciting nonetheless."

"They're great, but why gorillas?"

"We've been years perfecting the process, and I'm afraid most of the species dna in storage had degraded. It can be reconstructed now that the gorillas have proven the concept. Now, I have to ask—have you decided whether or not you're going to join us?"

I looked back at the synth boy, watching the gorillas like a kid at the zoo while the grownups talked. I wanted to ask about synth sheep for wool and synth horses to pull carts and if I could trade for any of his specialized plants. "I'm an outsider, and definitely not a scientist. Would there even be a place for me here?"

"Even if science isn't your passion, there are plenty of ways to contribute. Our projects sometimes require an agent who can work on the surface, to observe and gather information. From what I've heard, you're both fearless and resourceful. I think you'd be ideal for that kind of role!"

I asked more questions and got an interesting lecture on Bioscience—the different types of plants and the hydroponic gel they were grown in, and his happiness that, "Father recently approved the next stage of my synth zoology initiative. Do you have any suggestions for what creature we should replicate?"

I did suggest sheep, but Doctor Holdren told me the Institute made fabric from synthetic fibers so sheep would not have a particular use. Then he said maybe a leopard.

I found myself suddenly angry at that. Wool might not be useful here but it sure would be on the surface. And it's not like Doctor Holdren was ignoring that fact on purpose. It just didn't occur to him to think about the surface world. I didn't mention it.

Next to the gorilla habitat, behind an inner wall of plants, was a doorway sealed with rows of blue laser beams instead of a door. The terminal next to it told me this was the entrance to the FEV lab. Virgil's lab. But there was no way I'd be able to hack that door open.

So, plan B. "Hey kid, is there another way to get in there? Without the grownups seeing me?"

"Alice found another door but it's a scary place. We didn't go very far. Why do you want to go in there?"

"I have to get something that's in there. You probably shouldn't come so you don't get in trouble."

But he wanted to come along, I think so he could tell the other kids about it. He led me through a door into another grow room with no people in it and then through another door into a storage room. A few more doors through progressively less-used rooms brought us to the door out of the Bioscience room into the FEV lab.

As soon as we opened the door I could tell why the kids had been scared of the place. Only red emergency lighting was on and this section looked older than the rest of the Institute. It wasn't clean and white here, but dirty and falling apart. It looked like outside. "hey kid, stay behind me all right? And if anything happens you run away." It felt strange to worry about danger in the peaceful Institute, but as we walked under a series of decontamination arches I found myself scanning the ceiling for turrets.

There were turrets, but they weren't powered. All we found were a few dead gen-two synths. One had a hole right through its chest, either a shotgun blast or… a fist. My brain presented an image of super mutant Virgil punching right through the thing on his way out.

I looked sideways at my small guide, curious how he'd react to the remains. Was this a dead body to him or… Nope, he picked up a severed hand with an expression of delight. Sturges would love this kid.

Another door brought us to the lab. Its emergency lights were green, possibly just to make the place look even more creepy. Two huge tubes were half full of some foul goo, opaque green with foam drying on the surface. The room stank unbelievably, and the boy and I both pulled our shirts up over our noses. The boy fled into the hall with a heartfelt, "Uuugh!"

I tried to look around fast so I could get out of here. There was a third tube, broken open from the inside. Big pieces of glass littered the floor. Virgil had described the serum to me. He'd put a glowing tag on it so his mutating self would still be able to find it, but his mind had been so confused he'd forgotten anyway. The tag was still glowing, attached to a small square case sitting on a desk. It looked very much like a case I had for carrying lipstick, and the vials of serum inside were the same size as lipstick tubes. I grabbed the case and a couple of holotapes on the desk near it, and fled from the stench.

The boy seemed to have enjoyed the adventure even though he hadn't come very far. "That was the grossest thing ever! What do you think was in those tubes?"

"I think I don't want to think about it." I said, because I had a pretty good idea but didn't want to say decomposed bodies to a ten year old. That smell was pretty distinctive.

He was a synth. Maybe he wouldn't care.

The decontamination arches came on as we walked underneath, making me jump but it seemed they were just automated. The boy tried to scoot out from under the spray but I beckoned him back, "It'll make sure we don't stink." The chemical spray hit my hair and clothes and evaporated almost immediately, carrying away any smells or germs I might've picked up in the lab.

Nobody else seemed to have noticed out little side trip; the scientists in Bioscience nodded politely, deep in conversation about nutrient levels.