Chapter 178 (2/2)
Extra neural tissue nodules around the womb, one the spinal cord, and in the tail nerve cords. Receivers and transmitters but not the standard configuration.
And all naturally evolved.
He could see there was a poorly skilled amateur, obviously working out of a handbook, using extremely powerful tools, that had edited the genome, but it had mainly concentrated on the male. The male was smaller but tougher, more physically resilient than the female or the gestater sex.
The woman went and purchased some hot spiced noodles, VietNIHM Secret Noodles with Rigellian sauce and Treana'ad spices, his recent favorite fusion dish.
Finally he leaned back, feeling a slight thrill of victory he hadn't felt in a long time. All nine images were floating in mid-air.
”That's a superficial look,” Victor told the woman, who had gone from staring at him with unfocused eyes to intent when he'd leaned back. ”Obviously not a genejack or vatjob. Someone's done modification on them to reduce aggression, move them from omnivore to herbivore, increase submissiveness, and other modifications.”
”It's called 'gentling',” the woman said.
Victor shook his head. ”Foolishness. Eventually the effected creature will be too placid and submissive to exist or evolve on a world unless all the predators, major and minor, were removed as well as the weather system eased until its predictable to the point of lunacy,” he said. ”It's counter-productive for a useful species. Another five or six adjustments and this species would likely become little more than a fox-like creature that would leave behind intelligence to lead a small life of a foraging herbivore.”
The woman nodded. ”That's what we deduced.”
Victor smiled. ”Does the rest of the Confederacy know you and your compatriots are slithering around Confederate Space?”
The woman nodded again. ”It hasn't reached here yet, but it should in a few days.”
”What?” Victor asked.
”The Confederacy is at war,” the woman said. Victor felt a chill run down his spine and just stared at the woman.
”Fully?” he asked.
She nodded, her expressionless face somehow grave. ”Unrestricted. There's talk of a 1% vote by council members.”
Victor shook his head. ”And so you came looking for me?” He put his hands on the desk. ”I'm done with warfare. I'm done with the blood and the suffering. I had enough, that's why I ran.”
”No, it's not,” the woman said. ”You ran because you were afraid Daxin Freeborn would blame you for what happened.”
Victor swallowed.
”While your skills would undoubtedly be useful in a conflict, we're in a jam,” the woman said.
Victor snorted. ”The might of the Confederacy is in a jam?”
The woman shook her head. ”No. We learned our lesson. The Hamburger Kingdom Conundrum is what we have to look at now,” she motioned at the nine holograms. ”These people want our help, they've fought to rebel against their overlords and joined us.”
”Pfft, more fool them,” Victor said. He picked up an eating spear and snagged a piece of spiced beef, nibbling at it.
”What we need your help with is something that you, and only you, can provide,” the woman said.
Victor twiddled his fingers for less than 60 seconds and tossed her a datalink. ”There, genesis seed, for the ovum and sperm and gestater womb lining. It'll reverse the damage in three to four generations. No charge.”
Victor stared at her.
”Get out.”
The woman sighed and tossed him another data-chip. ”Listen to the sound-file.”
Victor plugged it in, bringing it up and listening to it on his datalink.
warm soft safe one and one is two one and two is three three and one is four square has four sides triangle has three sides safe warm brave podling clever podling sing with broodmommy podling
Victor jerked back, slapping his datalink.
”That's the Sleeping Ones!” he said, his eyes wide. ”Tell me you didn't wake them up.”
The woman shook her head. ”No. Somehow, some way, they are hearing the song from the gestater sex and repeating it.”
Victor frowned, turning back to the holoscreen. After a moment he looked at the woman. ”Would you mind? I'm going to need a few more eyes on this.”
The woman waved her hand. ”Go ahead.”
”I'm not stupid enough to think you couldn't fight your way out of this place, so relax,” Victor said.
There were twelve clone blanks waiting. Victor ordered them up, closed his eyes, and reached out.
The woman watched as the dozen clones, all of them pale and unfinished looking, moved into the room. They began looking over the genetic coding, holding fast discussions with each other, and networking their datalinks.
Finally one looked up. ”How was the gestater sex exposed to Terran Descent Humans?”
The woman tossed the records from the hospital ship. Two of the clones caught the data and began going over it.
”There, that's what did it,” one clone said, turning and facing the woman. The clone threw up a hologram of a fluffy tailed fox-like creature cradling a human who had suffered a direct SUDS hit. ”Damaged neural systems with personality and memory engram fractures. He was doing a slow personality download, which is core SUDSNet pipeline.”
Another clone turned around. ”The empathatic receptors picked up the pain and suffering and several of the empathic and limited telepathic neural clusters resequenced to the backbone SUDS wavelength in order to try to soothe his pain,” the clone said.
A third looked up from the hologram it was examining. ”Gestator sex low level memory sharing passed the frequency to others. Interestingly enough, it looks like the female of the species holds the frequency. It's fairly complex.”
A fourth looked up from the datapad it was tapping at. ”This species has a unique genetic quirk regarding emotions. They are very much analogous to human emotions on virtually a one to one basis.”
The woman nodded.
”The Sleepers aren't waking up to repeat this. This wounded soldier,” the fifth one said, pointing at a Terran male being held close by a fluffy tailed fox creature, ”Has a direct maternal ancestor who is one of the Sleeping Ones. Because her brain, held in stasis, shared certain genetic traits with her descendant, the song sung by this gestater sex was repeated to her.”
”What about stellar distance?” the woman asked.
”Normally, it would have been a factor. But he had a SUDS, and that's where the pain was coming from, so the gestater sex shifted several cluster's wavelengths to the SUDS wavelength, which means as long as one gestater is near a SUDS'd up human, they'll pick up the song and transmit it through the entirety of SUDSNet,” another clone said, looking up. ”Because the pain was on a lower level part of the SUDSNet, what used to be called SoulNet, that's where they're broadcasting.”
Another clone turned around. ”You can't block it. Not unless you put in filters to the old SoulNet backbone.”
”And there's nobody left who knows how that system works,” the woman sighed. ”They were killed.”
Victor opened his eyes and nodded. ”Yes, yes they were. In an instance that altered the galaxy forever.”
He made a motion and the clones filed back out, heading for the reclaimation tables. They'd be slurried back down to biomass and rebuilt.
”Now what happens?” Victor asked.
The woman smiled. ”You have two choice,” she said. ”You can come work for us. There will be over a dozen species that needs the exact work you just tossed offhandedly to me. There's a genetic adaptation and mutation species out there trying to wipe everyone out and we could use your help.”
”Dwellers?” Victor asked, feeling a chill.
The woman nodded. ”That's what the Imperium of Rage troops are calling them.”
Victor felt goosebumps raise on his skin at the mention of that ancient time.
”You get access to whatever you need. Full pardon. Blanket pardon. Unlimited resources. You own Black Box system. Work for us, you'll get whatever you need,” the woman said. ”Save these species from extinction.”
Victor stared at her.
”Or?”
He knew what is going to be. Now would come the threats.
The woman just shrugged. ”I walk away. I leave you a SolNet droplink to get in touch with me or one of my sisters in case you change your mind. I have my memory of this meeting erased and the files are purged everywhere except Black Box Prime. You keep going on as Victor, humble worker of the Clone-My-Shit-Up.”
Victor frowned. ”That's it?”
She nodded. ”That's it. We're already fighting multiple opponents,” she gave a sudden sharp toothed smile. ”Including a Mantid Omniqueen out there somewhere. A living Omniqueen.”
”And she's coming.”
Victor stood up, his eyes wide. The veneer genesequences melted away as purple lightning crawled up and down his arms and black mist started drifting down from his fists. Hate rolled off of him and a fury he'd almost forgotten existed surged up inside of him.
The computer consoles around his imploded, the chair was flung back to crash against the wall. The lights flickered and buzzed and the room VI squealed and ran for the water cooler.
The woman just looked up from where she was sitting.
”So you can sit here, in the Clone-My-Shit-Up, pretending to be Victor, an exceptionally gifted genetic technician,” the woman said.
Victor just stared at her.
”Or...”
Her smile got even wider.
”You can come home. Save entire species.”
Victor let the rage go and the lightning faded away, the black mist wafting away.
”I'll need some time to close the shop,” he said.
”An investor is poised to buy it from Victor,” she answered. ”When it's all over, Victor can come back to work. Interested?”
Victor nodded slowly, still feeling the ancient rage pound at his temples.
The woman's smile got cruel.
”Welcome home,” she said.
”Legion.”