Chapter 21

..[ ANDREW ]..

Andrew cursed his luck for the thousandth time for the exploration. While he was busy running away from feces wielding humanoids, there were people busy having intellectual conversations about alien scientific theories and comparing how they achieved the same understanding of physics through different ways. No, the only physics these humanoids understood was projectile dynamics. And they were quite good at it. They could even, more often than not, correctly compensate for the unpredictability of the human mind. He couldn’t wait to get off this planet.

Andrew had been on shuttle S11 back when the news about the Class Two civilization reached them. He had been ecstatic until he learnt that only up to shuttle 10 had been called back. 10! He had been on shuttle S10 only two days prior.

The crew had moralized themselves by saying that they would be the ones to discover the next one while the main ship was tied up on that planet. It had led to a few reckless behaviors before the shuttle commander, Shiyong, had been forced to put his foot down. Andrew was just glad that it never got into his head to take the command test. There were too many shuttle commanders after the net had been deployed, he would have been unlucky enough to be one.

He had a lot of work to do to have extra time to be in charge of a whole shuttle; or ship, in the case of Jacy. He still couldn’t understand how she found the time to do all those things. At first, he had thought she sacrificed personal relationships for power. But she seemed to be doing fine in that front too. Or as fine as any relationship could be expected to go. In the research front, she was still going strong. He thought if they compared their work in terms of achievements made, she would be ahead of him. There was no comparison in terms of deadliness. Andrew thought she was more than ready for that bout with Mativo.

But ever since Mondhe became Mativo’s ward, things had changed a little. Mativo spent most of his time in the lab working with her. And Jacy had stopped asking for a bout. But he knew she still wanted one. Fighting the sims wasn’t exactly the same as fighting Mativo. Andrew knew she was waiting for Mondhe to get past the newbie phase. Then, maybe even she might be good enough for a bout.

All adjustments they made to Mondhe’s nanobots were also added to the rest of the hybrid line, otherwise known as the public line. It would be the line any genetically engineered individuals would receive. Working on a way to adjust the DNA of the hybrids who had been unlucky enough to get the useless gene-configurations had introduced to them a way to actually modify the DNA of other already mature individuals. But Mativo had pawned off the project to another group of scientists, much to Mbithe’s horror. But Mativo allowed her to work on the project with the new group. She still came by every chance she got, but most of her time was spend in the lower deck labs.

Mativo was having a slight capital issue, and having a way to get money from the general public by giving them what they could call magic was too enticing to ignore. The hybrids all paid for their nanobots through work-service; or actual installments for those who found work outside the fleet, even if it was one of the other Mativo’s direct line of companies.

It wouldn’t work for everyone though. And for those it worked for, it would be to differing degrees. The genes of the host tended to want to shut down the new gene modifications. The genetic makeup of each individual shutdown different genes. And given the fact that a lot of other genes affected how the individual actually accessed the Energy, the degree of potential would vary from individual to individual. Trying to make that potential equal for all would end with all people being genetic clones of each other. No one wanted that. To beat the genetic lottery, one would have to go with bioaugmentation. But that would only raise one’s potential, not guarantee it.

But the gene part of the equation wasn’t his area of expertise. He had to design and program nanobots that worked for all these different people. The new species made the work all the more difficult. Near impossible even. They had settled on grouping people into those with similar gene makeup in relation to Energy access and use, and then developing designs that worked optimally for each group. Currently they had ten main groups. Andrew knew that Mativo would employ more groups of scientists for that too. They had talked of how niche designs would be more financially rewarding than the generalized designs. And being the experts in the field, that would fall on them.

“Why did we land again?” Bronwyn asked as she studied her gear.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

They were on their shuttle ride back to the main shuttle, S27. He had moved shuttles twice since then. They had washed up when they got to a relatively safe place away from the feces wielding natives. But Andrew didn’t think the idea of the gear covered in another species defecation would ever get out of his mind. He was going to commission another gear and have the besmirched one repurposed. It was a worthy expense where he was concerned. He was sure Rachel would agree.

“There was no civilization. No reason to land at all,” Murphy added.

The whole group seemed to be having the same opinion. Twenty-four hours earlier, they had all agreed that fixating too much on a civilization wasn’t healthy. That a little break, as they called it then, was needed. After all, they had a two-Day allowance for all class five civilizations. And the planet had qualified as such.

“Whose idea was it to land again?” Bronwyn asked again. To Andrew, it didn’t sound like a different question than the last one she had asked.

“We all agreed,” Andrew said.

“But who proposed it?”

“Does it matter?” Mũkanzi asked. “We talked and agreed on it. Everyone was looking forward to it.”

“Looking forward to get smacked in the face with a handful of feces?” Yeah, Murphy had been unlucky. And the natives did have a pretty good aim. “I think I need a DNA decontamination.”

“You mean cellular decontamination.”

“No. It went deeper than that.” Murphy insisted. “We might be pathogenically sterile, but what about picking pathogens from the natives? Anyway, the source of the idea is to blame. They should take credit for their bad ideas.”

“Why are you all looking at me like that?” Murphy asked when he noticed most of the group staring at him. Andrew hadn’t realized he was staring too.

“Well…” Mũkanzi trailed off.

“You don’t need to spare my feelings. I can take.” He moved his lips as if checking for something in his teeth. “Do I have a piece still stuck?”

“No! Why would you remind me of that?” Mũkanzi said in disgust. It might not have happened to her, but they all felt it when the first projectile landed.

“She was trying to say it was you,” Bronwyn said, preventing the conversation from descending into unnecessary topics.

“Me what?”

“You suggested landing on the planet,” Andrew told him.

“No!” He looked around, “No?”

But no one said anything, just giving him a flat stare. Except for Mũkanzi, who was still recovering.

…

After a thorough decontamination and clean up, Andrew found himself in Park’s quarters. They had stuck together for the group’s break as they liked to call it. Mbithe was stuck on the main ship because of her new project, Jacy was with Mativo on the planet and Dominic was somewhere on the portside of the net.

“So, tell me. What option should I go with?” Park asked him.

“What?... oh! Right.” Park was considering which of the three options available to turn him into an Energy user would be more agreeable with his family. Some of them had made it to the Swift.

His own family was dispersed all over The Empire. Jake had moved to Ũsumbĩ IV a few Years earlier, Abby was on Cindy’s ship and Jamie was meant to be on Kentron, the ship exploring the first duodecant; aiming for the galactic center. But the Frea-Jacy-Kacy trio had convinced her to change her assignment. Now, he didn’t know which ship she was on. At least he had Rachel waiting for him on Swift. She had barely managed to pass the Grade Three Test after he convinced, ahem forced, her to take it. She had been okay with Grade Two but Andrew hadn’t been.

“I really don’t know. There is still no way to make anyone receptive of Mativo’ version,” he said as he tried to keep watch of a basketball game Jake had been in. He had watched it a lot of times, but he still liked to watch it. It was one of the few games that had Jake being considered a rising star for a while.

“Where was I?” he got back to the conversation as the game went into a dull session. “The bioaugmentation version… well, you saw what happened with Jacy and Kacy. I don’t think your family would take it any better.”

“But it’s the more promising version of the three,” Park argued.

“In terms of potential, yes. But good luck getting to its full potential.” They both knew the limits the biological side would impose on the bioaugments. “The hybrid version is the most accommodating—”

“And the weakest of the three,” Park pointed out.

“Tell that to Mondhe,” Andrew reminded him.

“She has had rigorous training ever since she could hold a stick,” he argued back. “And Mativo has turned that several notches higher.”

“Exactly my point. With time and faithful dedication to the proper training, there won’t be any differences in actual power wielded by any of the three.”

“I’ve heard that phrase before,” Park said as he scratched his chin, trying to remember where he had heard it. Being a genius didn’t mean one could remember everything. That was something else altogether.

“It’s the first thing Mativo said to Mondhe; right after telling her she had the weakest of the three options.”

“All this talk and I still have no idea what to choose,” Park grumbled as he laid back on the sofa, paying the game attention for the first time since it began. “He was really good. What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Andrew said. Jake was being shown on the screen with a serious face even after a third successive three-pointer in under five minutes. The camera switched to Rachel, she was the complete opposite. She wasn’t jumping around or anything like that, but it was a close thing. He could tell, after all, he had been with her for forty years.

“He never said anything to me. And I didn’t want to push when he was clearly uncomfortable talking about it.”

They continued to half watch the match as they tried to come up with argument points Park could present to his family.