Dangerous Evolution (14 page)

“No, Commander,” she shook her head then grimaced in pain. “It wasn’t
them. It was a religious group called The Pure Way—a small cell of misguided
Sentients from what I could gather. Small but dangerous I’ve recently learned. ”
She rubbed the back of her head where she’d been struck as evidence.

Everyone in the room was paying close attention to the exchange
between us. Out of everyone present, human and Sentient alike; Val Evans
probably had the most answers to what was going on.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning, Miss Evans?” I said. “What
can you tell me about the cure you were working on for the Sentients?”

“I had it!” she exclaimed, then turned to Del, “I really had it
this time, Ambassador; I finally solved the mystery of how the virus was
killing Sentients.”

Del returned her look, its metal pupils widening in hope.

“Go on,” I coaxed.

“As we are all aware, Commander, Sentients have biological and
mechanical aspects of their physiology. What we didn’t know, and never
expected, is that they are life forms based on both carbon
and
silicon.
I don’t pretend to know how it all works. Quite frankly…it shouldn’t.”

She looked at Del and Sa as if to apologize before continuing. “The
component systems, derived from individual carbon and silicon evolutionary
processes, act as two independent organisms—working together in a symbiotic
relationship that creates…well…a Sentient.”

So they were actually
two
organisms working together? But
how…

“When Woz and Ambassador Del came to speak with me—wait…where is
Woz?”

I took a moment to explain Woz’s role in her disappearance—how it was
responsible for sabotaging her ship, and probably orchestrated her abduction as
well. I left out the part where Del separated Woz’s head from its body and
jettisoned it into space. Del could tell her about that later if it so wished.

Val seemed pretty shaken by the news. “I can’t believe Woz would…hurt
me like that.” Her voice was small, almost childlike. She took a moment to let
it all sink in, then pulled herself together to go on; her enthusiasm for the
research overriding the shock and disappointment of Woz’s treachery.

“After Ambassador Del told me about the virus, I offered to help
of course. Sentient scientists had had little luck in devising a cure, and the
ambassador thought an outside perspective might help.”

“And you didn’t think to notify Sector Security that the Sentients
had made contact with you?” I asked.

She was instantly defensive, just as her sister had been, “They
insisted I didn’t, Commander! If they had been threatening in any way, I would
have informed Sector authorities immediately. I knew the danger.”

I held up my hands. “It’s okay, “I said calmly, “please…continue.”

“Once I understood their unique biology, I started collecting a
large assortment of biological samples—to help me better understand how silicon
based life forms function. It’s common knowledge that they exist throughout the
galaxy, but the Sentients are the only ones we’d ever encountered that were
highly evolved, and…well…sentient.”

And our unimaginative yet accurate description of them was born.
If
we discover other sentient beings, I wonder how we’ll adjust the taxonomy.
Out
of curiosity, I made a mental note to ask Del how the Sentients refer to
themselves.

“Some samples were more difficult to procure than others, but I
found a source on Harrakan Station that could track down almost anything.”

“A dangerous approach,” I noted.

“I’m not naïve, Commander. I know what that place is all about,
but this was a true emergency, making the black market a necessary evil.”

“Anyway,” she continued, “after several months of studying the diseased
tissue provided by Del and Woz, along with examining my own collection of
samples; I discovered that the virus targeted the bond between the two
biological systems found in Sentient physiology. It made them violently reject
each other—ultimately leading to death.”

She paused for a moment to catch her breath. I got the impression that
she was reviewing the past in her mind, evaluating her actions, and their
eventual consequences. I could tell that she was in pain, and I realized that it
bothered me more than it should have, but she had to go on. We had to know what
happened.

“Try as I might, I couldn’t translate this finding into a cure—there
was a piece of the puzzle missing that I desperately needed. But then I got a
break; my supplier on Harrakan sent an urgent message saying he’d obtained
another sample, but that this one was special. He said it was an umbilical cord
having Sentient DNA markings on the placental end, but terminating in an odd, completely
silicon based structure—containing no discernible DNA at all.”

She looked around the room for understanding, but Doctor Sa was
the only one with an inkling of what she was trying to say.

“Don’t you see?” she asked. “The parent was a normal Sentient, but
the tissue indicated that the child was completely silicon based. There were
no
traces of carbon based DNA. None. The preliminary scans my contact sent were
unbelievable; I quickly realized that this sample could help me unravel the
silicon-carbon connection, and potentially develop something to keep the bonds
from dissolving.”

Using both hands, she pushed her fingers back through her hair; I
couldn’t help but notice how her face lit up when she was excited. Together
with her considerable beauty, the effect was intoxicating. I managed to focus long
enough to ask, “A purely silicon Sentient…how is that possible?”

“That’s what I wondered,” she said. “But I confirmed the scans myself,
as soon as I got to the station; it was genuine alright.”

“It was also a trap,” I said.

“You see it too?” Stinson said, more of a statement than a
question.

“Oh yeah. Lure her to the station with the samples—sabotage her
ship—then trigger the embedded device and kidnap her when they were ready.”

Well thought out, if poorly implemented,
I
thought to myself.

“Why not just take me from the station, or anywhere else for that
matter? And why now? I’ve been working on this for months.”

“The station is far too public,” I said. “There would have been a much
greater chance of being noticed during the abduction. And it would have been difficult,
if not impossible, to hide Sentient involvement. As for why now…you said
yourself, you were close to finding a cure—either someone wants it for
themselves, or they don’t want it to be found at all.”

“But how could they know I was close?” Val asked, “Only Del,
myself and Woz…oh…”

“If the black-out unit had properly self-destructed, we may never
have tracked the sabotage back to Harrakan, or inadvertently drawn Woz out,” I
said.

 “Your moon is remote,
and
close to Sentient space,”
Stinson added. “What better place to kidnap you? This
Pure Way
simply
disabled your ship and shot across the border. Who would be stupid enough to
cross The Verge looking for you?”

“We would,” I chuckled.

“Indeed,” Stinson agreed.

Del walked to the doorway, “I am going to the bridge,” it said. “I
will attempt to breach the communications net on one of the fleet ships gathering
at Seveq. Perhaps we can find out what they are doing.”

“I would like to know that myself,” I said.

Looking back at Val I asked, “What I need to know now is what the
Pure Way wanted with you and your research? And what were you doing on Seveq?”

“I think I can explain that,” Doctor Sa offered, “I’ve been
working on this virus since the first case presented itself.”

Despite my own doubts about Sa, I noticed that Val seemed to trust
him, and there was every possibility that the guards on Seveq weren’t keeping
him safe, but instead were keeping him from running off. I also realized that
Val was smart enough to see through any subterfuge on the Sentient’s part and
alert me, so I decided to give the doctor a chance.

“The virus started almost a year ago,” it began. “At first, the
symptoms were merely weakness and the sporadic failure of biomechanical
implants.”

“Ahhh, so the electronic aspects of your physiology
are
accomplished surgically?” I interrupted.

“Yes,” Val answered for the Sentient. “Silicon based
structures…organs really… allow their bodies to create and channel electrical
energy; this powers the implants. The modifications are done according to a
Sentient’s role in society. Some focus on sensory enhancement or scientific
analysis, and unfortunately, some amplify and project the electricity,
functioning as weapons.”

“Del mentioned that Sentient soldiers wore bracers,” I said.

“Exactly.” Sa motioned his head in agreement. “So you can imagine
the concern when body enhancements began to fail inexplicably. I was on my home
world of Alosh, when the first reports came in—it was very disturbing.”

Sa gestured at Val. “I am not being immodest when I say I hold the
same level of respect in the Sentient science community as Doctor Evans has in
your own, Commander. It was only natural that I be brought in to work on the
problem by our government. I just wasn’t expecting to be kidnapped into it a
month ago by the Pure Way. I’d never even heard of them until now, and I have
no idea what they believe in or what they want. They were forcing us to study
the corpses—to determine why they had died—but they seemed more concerned about
finding the cause than the cure. I can’t explain it really.”

Sa was increasingly uncomfortable, and it gazed around the room
before looking back at me. “Commander, we don’t experiment on the dead.
Ever.
What we did to those people on the planet…I saw Ambassador Del’s plea to The Consensus
for emergency aid for Seveq; its speech was inspired. If Del hadn’t been away
on a diplomatic posting, its body would be down there as well—the outbreak did
begin
on the ambassador’s planet after all.”

“
Del’s
planet?” I asked.

Sa looked puzzled. “Del is Seveq’s ambassador to The Consensus, Commander.
I thought you knew that. Isn’t that what brought you to the planet in the first
place?”

“Actually, no. We were following a tracking device implanted in
Miss Evans.”

Now it was her turn to look confused. “I turned that off once I
realized it had been compromised. My pilot noticed a few errant readings on our
trips to Harrakan, strange broadlink pings he said. Bev was convinced that we
were being tracked. I thought he was just being paranoid, especially knowing
the level of encryption employed, but I turned the tracker off anyway—just in
case. How did you reactivate it?”

“I believe you know Captain Stinson,” I said. He removed his
headset and Kamo hood and she gasped.

“Marie…” she said, understanding settling over her face.

“Marie,” Stinson repeated.

“Is she well?” Val asked.

“Oh yes. She just settled in on Narel two months ago. She got a
new job.”

“Excellent,” Val replied. “She is a smart girl…woman now I suppose.”

“She’s always been bright,” Stinson confirmed. “Jennifer and I are
really happy for her, but my posting has made it difficult to visit. I’ve
requested a transfer, but you know how impossible that is.”

I was beginning to feel like an intruder in someone else’s personal
conversation—then Sa interrupted them to continue its explanation of the virus
and its effects.

“Yes well…where was I? Oh, yes, it became apparent rather quickly that
something was seriously wrong,” Sa said. “Many people started dying. Seveq was
quarantined, but it was too late; the virus began to pop up everywhere, and it
was merciless.”

I thought about the planet rapidly falling away behind us, already
receding into just another pinpoint of light in the ship’s wake. Billions of
dead beings strewn across an entire world. Merciless indeed—but why? Where had
this plague come from?

“What were you able to find out about it?” I asked Sa.

“The most important thing I discovered is that it’s not a naturally
occurring outbreak. This was an engineered virus, released into the environment
intentionally
. It is completely synthetic.”

“Murder? No…genocide,” I said incredulously. It was hard to
fathom, but why would Sa lie about it?

“Who could do such a thing?” I asked.

“We don’t know,” Val shrugged. “The Pure Way kidnapped us both to
work on the problem so I don’t think it was them. In fact, they seemed
desperate for progress.” She rubbed her hands on her arms, trying to warm
herself. I hopped up and took off my Kamo jacket, draping it over her shoulders.

“Thank you, Commander,” she said, pulling her legs up to her chest
and huddling underneath the jacket.

“Please, call me Ben,” She gave me a smile before continuing.

“As Doctor Sa said, it was abducted first, then they came after
me. They said they needed my research background to complement Sa’s expertise
on Sentient biology. They were right actually, because we’ve made some remarkable
progress.”