Intentionality (22 page)

Opulent, overindulged, crass and utterly evil. These were just a few of the thoughts appearing immediately in the mind of my sister and me on entering the palace reception. Historical ‘finds' from the world before the Evo-shift were on display everywhere around the room. This family had been hoarding these artefacts for as long as they had been in charge. I recognised a couple of the oil paintings as those I had learnt about during our Art History sessions. I am absolutely certain that we had been informed about their loss to the world, not as it seems here, that they were languishing inside the Palace of Intentionality. These paintings were not however found in museums around this region. I can read almost all of the foreign languages in front of me using my Evo-gene; these pieces originate from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Which begs the question, how have they arrived here?

The elegant internal doors began to open, slowly and with a whoosh as they moved across the luxury carpet, also I have no doubt ‘found' in the rubble. The next view was nothing short of disturbing. There, being wheeled into position was the mastermind of horror. Natura was not as I recalled. She appeared to be smaller, weaker, withered and ultimately ancient. How on earth has she been able to visit The Harvest so recently looking like a beauty queen, if in fact that is what she has become? Behind her wheeled throne came an entourage of medics, military officers and various other maids.

She raised a spindly finger and twirled it clockwise. The maid pushed the chair around us in a circle that came to a gentle stop directly in front of Lily and I. Natura observed us like we were a science experiment. Her piercing eyes were intrusive, uncomfortable, most people look away for a short time when they see us, as we are so alike and then look again, but Natura stared at every centimetre of us from top to toe, her eyes flicking rapidly across the space we filled.

“Yes, Doctor you have certainly achieved success with the cloning. You must be congratulated. It was your first attempt, was it not?”

I looked then at my sister to see if she too had heard the word ‘clone', meaning ‘the same', quite literally an ‘exact' copy. Was this just her over officious word for twin? Or did she actually mean that we have been formed from a genetic mould of someone else? Dare I ask? She looked like she had the power to turn people into dust when we saw her on The Nest, but this withered old creature doesn't look capable of turning her own head let alone anything else!

“Mae, did she mean twin?” Lily communicated

“I would very much like to think so Lily but with everything that I now know about this manipulative scheming old woman, I certainly wouldn't dream of assuming that she has made a less than accurate word selection. I think she knows exactly what she is saying. This is her opportunity to gloat. After all she has succeeded in bringing us to Intentionality unharmed and uninformed, yet still somehow prepared for a game plan that she has devised, but not necessarily shared with others.”

Then the cackle began, she literally sounded like that mad witch in the story about Dorothy and the yellow brick road. Ever such a little bit deranged and magnificently theatrical. However the cackle soon turned into a rasping cough, leaving us both confused.

“You are the first copy of a feisty, powerful young Acer, the likes of which we have never witnessed before or since. She fought hard against my process. Some would say that she won. However I know better. I allowed her to escape The Grid. Her power was mesmerising. At first I intended to watch her strength blossom for a few months and then bring her back to complete her round of Ascension cycles. Unfortunately she met and married another Acer whilst working in Intentionality, which made it very difficult for me to pick her out of the crowd without anyone noticing. They are so very innocent over there you know. Like wasteful toddlers, wanting more and never once wondering where it comes from.”

“Ma'am, please excuse my unprompted interruption. However the physician suggested that you should not become agitated in your frail state. Your power reading is almost critical,” whispered a short, pale, young woman standing to Natura's left.

It was true; Natura did appear to be fading even as she spoke. Her rasping had become louder, her breaths shallow as she fought to finish words.

“22.52.05.14 not only demonstrated a supreme knowledge of communication previously unrecorded. She could, when put under extreme stress radiate a force from her body, which moved objects. This is how she escaped from the chair. That sort of power was a valuable asset for Intentionality. I was not going to allow it to pour through my fingers like sand. Not when our beautiful city was in danger of imploding. I waited until she went into hospital to have her first child then I ordered her capture. The child was sent away (I know not where, such a small snippet of information was inconsequential to my plans). He wouldn't have developed into an Acer with an Evo-gene; males rarely do, even now. Orphans are sought after, but only females, as they hold the worth a family needs to progress up the social ladder. An Acer with an Evo-skill gets you noticed. In addition, may I add, I pay the family a good wage for the girls' ‘services'. Of course they never return home but we send yearly postcards from varying destinations around the globe, glorifying the importance of a lifetime of service in ‘The Grid Guard'! I have even commissioned a literary department for this procedural, drivel.

“22.52.05.14's innocent husband was informed of both the baby's demise and his wife's grave health. We offered to care for her in our state of the art hospital facilities here in the palace. The poor man almost begged us to take her! We took cells from the inside of her mouth, samples of her blood and strands of her hair with the intention of finding the key to her power. Then I personally placed her back in The Grid. We informed the grief-ridden shell of a man, that even we couldn't save her. I heard that he left the city not long after that.

“She should never have crossed the line.”

Momentarily Natura's retelling flow was lost in a fit of coughing, she shuddered with each gasp of air then her eyes began to roll. A nurse stepped forward from the waiting crowd, in order to press a button on the back of her chair which relayed something medicinal into Natura's arm. She recovered enough to regain her composure and of course return to her gloating rant. This time however a stream of drool leaked from her mouth, quickly wiped away by her nurse aide. She then spent the next moments talking through a handkerchief.

“Her place was to supply Intentionality with her Evo-gene power, she had been spoilt with our resources as a child and now it was time to pay back the debt. Her power supply saved many young Acers that year…”

Natura's voice trailed off again. This time the pulse from the chair could not bring her back, her head slumped forward; her hands flopped down from her mouth. Simultaneously an alarm sounded from the chair. Physicians came running laden down with equipment.

“Stand back, woman,” yelled one of the physicians to the maid.

“We don't have time to transport her to The Grid terminal in her quarters. These girls are more than capable of feeding her. It is after all why they were born.”

Then into view came an object that quite literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand in fear. My heart raced as I became all too aware of what would happen next. The voices were back, screaming for me to ESCAPE, to FIGHT with every last drop of energy. Both Lily and I had been trapped in here as part of her last feeble attempt to remain on this Earth. I could see it now as they turned her. When the maid had spoken about a power reading, it hadn't made sense, however now it was abundantly clear. Connected to the rear of the chair and trailing up to Natura's hairline was an electrical wire. On the opposite end of the wire was a battery pack. The object being wheeled at great speed into the reception hall was a mobile torture/travel pod. The buzzing and prolonged deafening shouting within my own skull had become debilitating, I could see Lily frozen to the spot but vigilant enough to recognise the signs. There would be no way that I would withstand an Ascension cycle adequately enough to prevent Lily from having to also go into the chair after me, neither could I summon enough communication sense to tell her to run or shout for help through Willem. We were trapped and destined to fulfil Natura's wishes after all.

Through the fog of panic and negative thoughts, I could just make out the warm comfort of my sister's voice, beckoning me out of the wilderness.

“Mae, keep calm and breathe deeply! You look like you are about to blackout on me again. This is not the Ascension test. I can protect you this time. I have contacted Willem. They know where we are, remember our tracker anklets! He is sending Craig and Luke. They will be here shortly, they were just chaperoning Mrs Alder from Skye's lab to the medical bay, apparently it's close by.

“While we are waiting, let's show them a trick or two from our mother's repertoire. That evil creature can't order those poor people around anymore. They are just as confused as us. I think we have the upper hand. One element is completely clear in my hastily manufactured plan. I am not going into that chair. I don't know what it does for Natura but I am not going to facilitate a return of the wicked witch of the west!” communicated Lily.

I did then take a moment to reflect, we did have the upper hand. Natura's staff did look flustered. She is clearly in a degenerative state, beyond what they have dealt with previously. We are their only hope. She will die without our co-operation. I am not sure if I want that on my conscience for the rest of my life. They didn't know what we could do and could have no way of expecting us to be so strong. If we could hold them off for as long as it took for The Resistance to arrive, we might be in a position to negotiate.

I had completed my novice screen of the area, three Mono maids, four Acer physicians and two guards, finalised my decision to hold our position and was just about to glance at Lily when the large wooden door swung open, revealing more guards prepared for nothing short of war. They were clothed in big black boots, heavy black jackets, helmets and visors. What did they expect, a fire breathing dragon or a spontaneously igniting super being? Neither of which I could see any evidence of. I began looking around for the cause of the imminent danger, before realising it was Lily and I.

We had no other option than to reveal our mother's power. Just chatting inside our head and being able to translate what they said, was not going to get us very far. I agreed with my sister about the chair. I was not going back in that contraption.

“Lily, Willem, we need to gather our power like we did during the sub emergency. Perhaps we can create a force field to contain the guards.”

As the lead guard approached I could feel that warmth initiate in my head, it ran like warm water in a shower down the internal elements of my arm, then radiated along each digit until I could see translucent waves emanating from the tips of my fingers, splaying out my fingers made the waves wider. Lily copied, the result being a wall of waves. At first the guard carried on walking but step-by-step his speed slowed, he seemed to be pushing against a force. It was us, we were holding him away.

My concentration was momentarily disturbed by a change in pitch from the alarm attached to Natura's chair…

There it was, our bargaining tool, a gift from above.

“If you need us to cooperate, you will order your men to stand down. I must warn you that we can overpower you if we need to and may I also remind you that at this moment Natura is unconscious, even to my untrained eye she looks to be at the edge of life and death. It seems to me that you need something from either me or my sister in order for your Queen to remain alive,” I demanded.

“Oh my goodness, Mae that speech was awesome! However I am still not getting in that chair, not even for you. Do I need to remind you of the fact that the hideous woman slumped in that wheelchair killed our mother by holding her prisoner in one of those,” she whispered and directed her head towards the torture chair.

With an understated hand signal the commander ordered his guards to stand down, they moved to the back of the room, standing to attention but with weapons facing the floor.

“22.52.05.14 we order you to take your position in the transfer pod. Your Queen needs to be energised.”

“I can't even begin to do what you are demanding until you both explain why I MUST and what will happen to both me and Natura if I do. Clearly I know what will happen if I DON'T, so you really have no influence on me by using that tone. My name is Mae. I am not a number. I am a teenage girl and my sister Lily stands by my side because she wants to, not because she has been told to. We are humans not robots or one of your slaves.”

The commander tried to take a step towards us, simultaneously the front line of his guards also began raising their weapons, targeted on me and moved into position beside the torture chair. It was obvious that they were going to manhandle my sister imminently. I assume they had already detailed this scenario en route. I was going to be the bargaining chip, the one they could afford to lose. After all my track record showed that I was defective, having never passed the Ascension test anyway. Lily was the prize; powerful enough to enliven Natura on her own, but Lily raised the flat of her hand. The commander's nose flattened by itself, as if pressing against glass. He stopped then, a blank expression crossed his face, some thought registered in his mind. I think his conscience was calling! Its name was Lily!

Spurred on by her awesome show of ability, I began my return from obscurity. Whilst Lily held the commander either in suspended animation or a hypnotised trance, I reasoned with my options. I was not going to be able to forcibly move through the front row guard. But I could use the power pulse to knock them off their feet momentarily. On making that decision the wave of glassy flow exited my fingers and burst into a million light beams. The resultant illumination of the entire room was vivid, shocking and blinding. Obviously the main lightning strike was directed towards the guards who sped backwards, over-balancing on furniture and opulent rugs, two men fell through the tall, garden aspect bay windows. We heard their landing broken by the bushes below. The white blindness was prolonged. They continued to stumble even as the second row of the commander's guards leapt into well-choreographed action, fuelled by their training, a sense of pride and not a small measure of disbelief. Never during their life in the guard would they have ever encountered unrest of the kind my sister and I were unfurling in this room. I turned, realising that my power was ebbing away. With Lily holding the commander and my strength finally depleted, we were on the verge of losing what we had fought for.

However I had not bargained for the fact that my sister had clearly maintained her stance and line of communication with the commander. Unbelievably, without breaking eye contact with my sister, he lowered his hands, the sign for his guards to stand down again, they promptly obeyed, returning to the outer limits of the room.

Then he inhaled and began to speak in a calm, measured manner. Like friends talking over dinner.

“Girls it is true you have been wronged. For a while now we have questioned Natura's harsh approach, however her attitude has been the influential element in keeping order and productivity alive inside those gates. Since the death of Eve, and the uncertainty that this brought, Natura has sought to maintain our city and protect its naive residents from the harsh reality of this New World.”

He pointed then, towards the unbroken, grand floor to ceiling bay window, lavishly framed in burgundy and gold velvet drapes. Beyond the beauty of the tree-lined garden was the outline of the city. Its majestic church towers and shining roofs could be clearly seen.

“Those pampered people in the city, no longer know the hardship experienced just two generations ago. Life is fast, greed is the new fashion, and the ‘Golden City' just doesn't sleep. When Natura took over, we had too many mouths to feed. No way to supply the power, to manufacture the produce necessary, which will in turn feed, clothe and keep them warm, not to mention treat them medically. Eve like her mother had been selfless, kind and caring but had not been a businesswoman. We were heading for another time of starvation, with the distinct possibility of another serious epidemic on its way from the Mono quarter. Natura decided to close our borders. Not, as you can imagine, a popular decision but completely necessary. A step someone less strong would have not dared to make. First we built a fence to keep others out, of course that then trapped us in. With no way to explore, discover new ways to keep us fed and warm, we were suffocating, setting ourselves up for a long painful extinction.

“So Natura tapped into the only advantage left. We didn't need any more information from the maturing Seeders. We had no resources to make use of anything new. We had learnt all we needed to know about the processes and inventions developed and used by the old world, before the second generation were born. Remember Natura is herself the second generation of Acers. She matured as a physicist. It was her Evo-gene that led us towards the criminal path we are following to this day.

“She began to study the brain, the way it works on energy or for the want of a better term – electricity. Natura literally locked herself and her team in the labs. Her theory was that New Acers would be capable of emitting large amounts of electricity because they were working so hard to balance their change from Seeder to Acer. Her team worked to harness that electricity. In that lab the concept of The Grid was born. It was Natura who took the turn in the chair during the day that her theory became a reality. She had succeeded in harvesting electricity from a human brain. It was only initially enough to light a bulb but it was the beginning of a rescue plan. The system took too much from her; it unbalanced the electrical flow between her internal organs irreparably. We have been replenishing her body's own electrical supply ever since. We tweaked the system, revised the power demand and adapted growth hormones to assist the Seeders in their maturation cycle. We only took the girls that were ready, capable of coping with the pressures of supply and demand. That is what The Harvest was for. Eventually our capability to remove electricity from a new Acer brain was powering the whole of Intentionality and for Natura most importantly the security fencing, which was keeping the plague-ravaged Monos out. We prospered once more.

“She gave herself selflessly to her people just the way her mother would have done, however her health, wellbeing and the essence of her character was in turn lost forever. She remained strong-willed but the part of her that carried empathy was immediately removed.”

I had stood transfixed by this tale, by this man searching his memory for snippets of information to explain, persuade and plead for forgiveness. A vision of Natura the victim sat uncomfortably in my mind. So, what the commander was saying in his rather glorified version of events was that New Acers were no longer welcomed in to the golden glory of Intentionality. They were kept as slaves in chairs to supply the city with the power required for people to go about their daily business, untainted by the experience hardship. Even we in The Nest had been lavished by this power, in the lights that led us through the corridors, the artificial heat, luxurious food and the computerised learning that had been so critical to our accelerated academic development. The Grid girls, to put in its most grotesque form, had been living out their short lives so that strangers could boil as many kettles as they needed for their afternoon tea. They had also sacrificed their lives albeit involuntarily, to keep away the fantasy monster of the plague, (which never seems to have existed after its initial devastating appearance following the Evo-shift). Natura's orders were clearly fed by her misinformed view of imminent danger.

At what point in time in this new ‘post Evo-shift' world had that amount of inhumanity become acceptable? My mind was now racing through a mountain of blame. If this heart-warming story of selflessness was in fact true, yes Natura is prime culprit. But so too are the people who allowed her to continue in power.

“You really aren't convincing me of any need to start up that woman's mind again. Why didn't anyone stop her? And while you are explaining life as we know it in Intentionality, what did she want with my sister and me?”

He didn't have time to comment further because we all turned our heads to assess the scuffle in the corridor and the resultant arrival of Craig in full military apparel. Behind him stood Luke and behind him a rather too glamorous army commander.

Summer swept in, supported by her Resistance Guards, immediately weighing up the danger in the room and I have no doubt secretly assessing the possibility of having an enormous takeover party. Old habits die hard!

“Commander, I am Commander Summer I shall be relieving you of your command as of now. My guards will escort you to the holding area along with your soldiers where you will await new orders. You can choose to join a reformed government and stand alongside us as an informant, or you can stand trial as the accomplice to a murderer.”

The commander lowered his head in surrender. His demeanour was more relief than hostility. He marched out of the room co-operatively alongside the soldiers of both his outgoing guard and The Resistance incoming authority.

It was over for my sister and I, we had been saved…

The high-pitched alarm connected to the ruler of Intentionality was silenced, the decision of redemption or punishment removed from my responsibility. In the end she had been without oxygen for too long, her disability was too critical, her body had become ravaged by time. We could not now have saved her, even if we wanted to.

Our thoughts travelled to those Grid girls once more, the possibility of their recovery, the whereabouts of those who had been enslaved before them, why we were the only twins in existence and of course eventually to our mother.