Blood Legacy Origin of Species (17 page)

With that comment, Ryan leaned forward to touch the creature, and her hand passed right through him. Very slowly, she withdrew the appendage and sat back.

“I really am losing it,” she murmured.

Petrus spun on his heel and went back to his corner. He sat there in silence for a few moments, glowering at her. The click of the door lock release was loud in the quiet that hung heavy between them. Susan strode into the room. She glanced into the empty corner to see what Ryan was staring at, then turned back to her.

“Edward said I should come and check on you. Is there something wrong?”

Ryan stared at Petrus while addressing Susan. “I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it as objectively as possible.”

“Okay,” Susan said.

“Is there anyone else in this room right now?”

Susan glanced about, assessing every corner of the room. She had no idea what Ryan was getting at.

“I don’t see anyone else in here,” she said slowly.

“Fine,” Ryan said, resignation in her voice. “That’s all I needed to know.”

Susan was concerned. “Are you okay, Ryan?”

“No, I don’t believe so. But apparently everything is happening in my mind right now.”

The comment struck a chord with Susan. She turned it over and over, assessing it, analyzing it, devising a hypothesis, a potential theory, and methods of testing it.

“You know what, Ryan? You may actually be right,” Susan said, the excitement in her voice evident. “You just gave me a great idea.”

Susan rushed from the room, the lock clicking loudly in the returning silence. The comment was small consolation to Ryan as she stared at the glowering creature that clearly did not exist.

Susan rushed into the surveillance control room. Victor and Edward sat gazing at the screen, concern evident on both their features. Victor was having difficulty viewing the picture, but he had seen enough.

“Edward,” Susan began, “I’m going to need some additional equipment. I want to run full CT and PET scans on Ryan’s brain. It’s the one avenue I haven’t really explored, and it might be the answer to what’s going on with her right now.”

Victor was very pale as he sat watching the video of his daughter, and he did not respond. Edward, ever the faithful servant, pulled himself together and acknowledged Susan’s request.

“I will have the equipment shipped immediately,” he replied, “and I think that’s a very good idea.”

Susan was taken aback at his tone of voice, and turned to the footage they were reviewing. Ryan was seated in her room having what appeared to be a very animated conversation with an empty corner.

“So,” Ryan said, “if I have created you then why did I give you this form?”

“You mean why do I look like a pig mated with a chimpanzee then was hit by a bus?” Petrus said sarcastically.

“Well, not exactly in those words, but yes.”

“Not a clue,” Petrus said with unhelpful enthusiasm, “maybe Grandma did a number on you.”

Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “What do you know about my grandmother?”

“I know what you know,” Petrus said, “we share the same mind, remember?”

“I’m still not buying that scenario,” Ryan said.

Petrus moved closer and plopped himself blob-like down in front of Ryan. “Then let’s try this on for size.”

“For the first time in your life, you’re really afraid.”

Ryan was noncommittal. “And what am I afraid of?”

“Well, short-term, I think you’re afraid of what you might turn into. You might start sprouting tentacles or perhaps grow a claw or two.”

The color drained from Ryan’s face. The creature was remarkably accurate.

“Second, you don’t have a lot of control right now and I think you’re afraid you’re going to kill someone close to you, maybe that hotty Marilyn or your Asian boyfriend, or perhaps that handsome father of yours, or maybe even your son.”

Ryan gritted her teeth, but did not deny it.

“And finally, I think you’re pretty afraid of grandma in general.”

Ryan made a derisive noise. “That’s not exactly a revelation. Only a fool would not fear that one.”

Petrus’ tone grew calculating. “I think there’s more to it than that. I think you’re afraid of what grandma’s ultimate intentions toward you are.”

Ryan was growing increasingly uneasy. “What are you blathering about now?”

Petrus shrugged expansively. “Let’s face it. This is a race that fucks and kills just about everything that moves. What if grandma wants to—”

Ryan did not let him finish but leaped towards him, arms outstretched to choke the life from him. Unfortunately she passed right through him and went full speed into the rock wall, nearly breaking both her arms. The collision stunned her and she slumped to the ground while the creature cavorted about the room, chortling mercilessly. The door slammed open and Ryan could hear her father.

“Ryan!’”

Petrus winked at her with a rheumy eye. “Got to go!” he said, and disappeared. Ryan stared at the empty spot on the floor.

Victor, Edward, and Susan all entered her chambers. Ryan sat leaning against the wall, despondent.

“I don’t suppose any of you saw that creature.”

Victor looked around the room and saw nothing. Susan knelt down at Ryan’s side. They had all seen the massive collision with the wall on camera, but it did not appear that Ryan had suffered any injuries, none physical, at any rate.

Ryan sighed. “Of course you didn’t.”

On the fourth try, Susan was able to inject Ryan with the radionuclide, but only after Ryan had split her own skin to facilitate the process. Susan felt a pang of guilt at the stirring of desire the blood elicited. But Ryan was oblivious, lost in some private hell she did not wish to share with anyone. They had already conducted the CT scan which Susan had analyzed to assess the structural integrity of the brain. Although Ryan’s brain was abnormal for a human with far too many ganglia and too many neural connections, the structure appeared normal for her. This result had been disappointing to Susan, but she had hope that the PET scan would show her something relevant and significant.

Victor stood leaning against the wall. He stood upright as Ryan bent over as if in pain.

“Are you all right?” he asked, moving to her side. He was relieved that her eyes were not maroon. He was also relieved to see that she still recognized him.

“Yes, I think so,” she responded, “I think I’m having one of those weak spells.”

Susan grasped her under one arm while Victor took the other. “As terrible as this sounds, I’m actually glad,” she said, “we couldn’t hope for better timing. And if I had to pick one of the phases to examine, this is probably the one I would choose because at least you’re in control.”

They led her to the scanner and Ryan reclined onto the surface. She did not feel in control right now, in fact, all she wanted to do was sleep. From what Susan had explained to her about the PET process, she did not think this would be a successful test at all. The scanner was designed for functional imaging, meaning it would measure the metabolic output of her organs, in this specific case, her brain. The scan would translate the glucose consumption of her brain into a color-coded image, revealing what portions of her brain were currently most active. The inactive portions would show up as black or blue and the highly active portions would show up as yellow or even red hot spots. As lethargic as she felt right now, Ryan was quite certain the image would show up entirely black.

Susan waited impatiently while the machine recorded the images. It was the very latest technology and probably the fastest available in the world, but it still seemed glacial. She was particularly interested in the activity surrounding the hippocampus, which had a direct role in memory retention and retrieval. She was also interested in the amygdala, part of the limbic system responsible for emotions and the flight or fight response, and the pre-frontal cortex, the seat of logic. Overall, however, she just wanted to see what parts of the brain currently had the most blood flow and were burning the most oxygen.

After about forty-five minutes, the machine finally finished and Susan was disappointed to see that Ryan appeared to be sleeping when the tray slid silently outward from the scanning tube. That would affect the results, especially if Ryan was in normal sleep versus REM sleep. REM sleep would have a few more red areas where the brain was strengthening memories and processing new experiences and information. Normal sleep would be very fairly inactive. In either case, the pre-frontal cortex, unless Ryan was lucid dreaming, was probably offline entirely.

Victor went to Ryan’s side and gently shook her, relieved that she still appeared to recognize him when she awoke. He picked her up despite her protest and carried her to a nearby chair. The two waited while Susan pulled the results up on the computer. In a normal hospital, this process might have taken two or three days while a technician read the results then prepared a report for the doctor, but Susan was able to cut to the chase. In a matter of minutes, she had the results on the screen in front of her.

“Oh my god,” she murmured to herself.

Victor helped Ryan to her feet and the two joined Susan, looking over her shoulder at the screen.

“That doesn’t seem right,” Victor said uncertainly, “at least based on what you explained to me.”

“No,” Ryan agreed, leaning against her father, “that doesn’t seem right at all.”

Susan stared at the screen, astonished. The three dimensional depiction of the brain was accurate, and the color coding should have represented the metabolic processes occurring in the tissue during the scan, with inactivity express in darker colors and extreme activity expressed in the brighter hues. Although Susan had hoped to identify the areas most active to determine what exactly was going on in Ryan’s head, this was one result she had not anticipated.

The scan of Ryan’s brain was entirely red.

Drake was curled up in Ryan’s arms as she sat before the fireplace. Clever engineering allowed fire far beneath the surface of the earth, providing oxygen for it to burn and the ventilation for the smoke and fumes to exit. The heat felt good on her skin because she still felt cold from her weakness. Drake sensed her need for warmth and pressed against her, causing her to smile. She marveled at how quickly he was growing. Victor watched the two, feeling profoundly sad.

“I don’t really have an explanation for this.” Susan said, entering the chambers. “I tested the machine and it appears to be working fine.”

“So let’s assume that the results were correct,” Ryan said tiredly, “what would that indicate?”

Susan shook her head, thinking aloud. “I don’t know. It could be simply that the machine is designed to scan humans and therefore the parameters aren’t applicable to you.” She continued to think aloud. “The problem with that scenario is that I’ve done these scans on you before. Although I found extreme results in visual and spatial memory, not to mention the number of different parts of the brain accessed for any given task, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Susan marveled at what she was about to say. “Theoretically, what the scan indicates is that 100% of your brain is 100% active.”

“Would that make me hallucinate?” Ryan asked.

Susan could not help but think of Ryan’s bizarre actions on the camera. “Yes,” she said slowly, “it could make you hallucinate. But that’s not really surprising given what I’ve learned about memory versus Memories. I can’t imagine what impact it has on the brain to inherit the experiences of another as one’s own.”

“I didn’t seem to have much problem with it until the Memories belonged to another species,” Ryan said, a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.

Susan did not quite know how to respond to this. “Your mind has never been normal in a human sense. Even your sleep patterns are closer to meditative states than actual sleep. It’s possible that the extreme mental activity is a result of your brain adapting to the stress by building new neural connections, new visual and spatial relationships.”

“So is this the ‘Change’ you were proposing?”

“No,” Susan said thoughtfully, “I would think if you were undergoing a second Change, there would be more physiological changes, but I’ve found nothing.”

Victor had kept silent but spoke at last. “I’m sensing another theory here, Dr. Ryerson.”

Susan turned to him. “These phases that Ryan is passing through, especially the one where she is normal but has no memory, remind me of your reaction to Aeron’s virus. Your body basically shut down to protect itself, going into a deep stasis to prevent damage, not unlike inducing hypothermia in spinal cord and brain injuries.” Susan turned and addressed Ryan directly.

“The first phase, in which you simply have no memory, might be a form of mental stasis. The second phase, where you are extremely strong and violent, odd as it sounds, might be a form of physical stasis. And the third phase, like now, where you feel weak but where we feel no difference in you, might be a self-imposed recovery period. And when I say self-imposed, I don’t mean that any of this is under your control. This is probably an instinctive reaction of your system, much like Victor’s hibernation.”