JACKIE:
Mark stood on the balcony overlooking the volcano, admiring the unfinished tower.
Without looking at me, he asked, “What are you doing here, Jackie?”
“I’m here to pay my respects to Queen Beatrice. What brings you to Camp Claudi?”
Mark pushed a button on his watch, and Alpha lifted from a docking station. Its veins glowed green.
“I have to thank you,” Mark said with a smile. “You gave me a brilliant idea.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“I never thought to use the Life Rite serum on my little toy here, but why else would it glow green? One injection and this thing is crunching numbers on a whole new level!”
“Oh, no! What have I done?”
Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut or come up with a plan before diving headfirst into the chaos? Was I incapable of strategic thinking?
Alpha hovered over, blinking its creepy eye at me.
“Great. I set the worst possible outcome in motion. If I don’t fix this, B’s sacrifice will be in vain.”
Mark ignored my ramblings. “It makes sense. Bennu eggs make all Life Rite products better. Let’s see what else you know, dear Jackie. Let’s test that blood of yours.”
A needle popped out of Alpha’s attachment arm. It flew toward me, ready to take a sample of my blood. If it succeeded, it might trigger global annihilation!
“Stop! You’re literally stomping on B’s grave!” I yelled to Mark.
That got his attention. My grandfather paused the drone and looked at me with hatred in his eyes.
“What do you know about it? She died before you were born. Everything I do is in her honor!”
“Immortalize her with your tower if you want, but don’t feed off other people’s lives to live forever! You’re a parasite.”
“I’m an innovator. A disrupter. A curer of diseases.”
“Beatrice knew the suffering Life Rite would cause. She explored every probability deeply and knew without a doubt, this was the wrong path. How could you disobey her?”
“The treatment can’t be kept from the world. It’s bigger than me and Beatrice, and certainly more important than a drug addict like you, Jackie.”
Beatrice’s sacrifice fell heavily on my shoulders. Her wisdom echoed in my ears, so I repeated it.
“A hero will sacrifice themselves to save the world, but a villain will sacrifice the world to save a chosen few. Can’t you see the difference?”
I hope I got that right.
Mark thought about what I said.
Grace and Zayne stepped onto the balcony to join us, holding hands.
“Father, is it true?” Grace threw the Life Rite mutation manual at Mark’s signature boat shoes.
“Tell her the truth!” Zayne yelled.
“I thought you two broke up.” Mark shrugged his shoulders and added, “Where would you all be without Life Rite? Without me and all my hard work? Huh?”
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“Giving the treatment to the wealthy creates disparity between the haves and the have-nots. I’d rather be a janitor’s daughter than condone what you’ve done to innocent people,” I said.
“It’s an expensive treatment,” Mark replied without regret. “Somebody has to pay for it, but maybe there is a better way. Let’s test your theory, Jackie. Alpha will take a blood sample to see what we’re working with.”
Mark touched his watch, and Alpha clicked toward me again with needle drawn. I bobbed and weaved to escape it.
“No way. I can’t let that happen,” I said as Alpha chased me around the balcony. I picked up a wastebasket and threw it, but the drone dodged my lame attack.
“Either way, Life Rite can’t be denied. My loving wife was too afraid to take the treatment, but I had an obligation to the world to see it through to its final conclusion. I had already created it. How inefficient to let it go to waste… Life Rite was simply meant to be.”
“Kidnapping? Creating mutants, Father?” Grace asked through tears, the reality of the situation sinking in. “Sounds like bad execution to me.”
Mark softened. “If we can revolutionize the process and make things more efficient, we will. Jackie claims her blood holds some special gene.”
“Leave my daughter alone!” Zayne yelled.
I was running out of the stamina to evade Alpha for much longer. I turned and kicked it right in the iris.
“You cannot escape the statistical probabilities,” Alpha said to me.
Did Alpha remember the other probabilities like I did? Maybe injecting it with serum brought its consciousness back, like Feraz rebirthing did for me.
The drone chased me in a circle around my family on the large balcony overlooking the volcano.
Zayne screamed, “Stop this! Leave Jackie alone.”
Alpha didn’t tire like I did, and it pricked the back of my neck, taking a blood sample. I touched my neck and saw the blood on my finger.
Did I just give Alpha access to the slipstream? Or was my blood ordinary now? My mother never took the serum in this timeline, so maybe I didn’t have the phoenix gene anymore.
“This is the most probable thing to happen,” Alpha said as it synthesized my blood in its belly.
I watched in horror as my blood mixed with the green radioactive liquid already running through Alpha’s veins. The biochemicals created an ethereal cocktail that scared me.
“The most probable thing?”
Suddenly, everything clicked for me. I finally saw the complete picture, my entire family tree, the full map of the slipstream.
“It was the most probable thing to happen…” I said, in awe.
“Exactly!” said Mark boastfully. “You cannot deny progress.”
“I finally get how the slipstream works,” I said to Zayne.
I addressed my confused mother. “Some things are more probable of happening, and therefore harder to change.”
To Mark, I said, “You’re right. The treatment was always meant to get out.”
“With ninety-eight percent certainty,” Alpha validated.
“Zayne and Grace were meant to fall in love, and I…”
What was most probable for me? I always struggled with my purpose and place. Whether I was a janitor or heir to the Life Rite empire, I never felt authentic or comfortable in my own skin. Until now…
“I finally see my role in the grand scheme of things. It’s actually the most important of all. Me, Jackie. I finally see my own worth,” I said aloud to my complicated family.
My mother moved to comfort me. “I’m glad you’ve finally found yourself. What’s your big purpose, honey?”
“I was meant to heal all the messed up stuff my family has done.”
Mark laughed. “Listen to this spoiled brat. Anyone would kill to be a part of this family.”
“I’m going to do it. I’m going to heal all the suffering brought onto anyone who can’t afford Life Rite, not to mention the people of Bennu Island.”
Mark rolled his eyes. “Sure. The black sheep in the family is our holy savior. Please! If you're lying about your blood, you can kiss your holiday bonus goodbye.”
“Wait!” I called to Mark. “I didn’t tell you what your fate is yet.”
“I make my own fate.”
“I’m sorry, Grandpa. You… you were always meant to die in that volcano.”
My family looked at me like I was crazy, but I don’t make the rules. The slipstream does.
Mark held the balcony railing so tight, his knuckles turned white. Maybe deep down, he felt the inevitability of it all. But could he accept it?
“You hear that? Dispose of her, Alpha. Before she attacks me.”
Mark pointed at me. His own granddaughter. No one was safe from his ambition. I braced myself for a fight.
Grace gasped. “Father, no! Jackie, stand down. We can work this out another way.”
“Jackie is unhinged again,” Mark declared. “You raised a junkie, Grace!”
Zayne charged back. “You’re unhinged! You’re a monster!”
Mark dropped his nice guy act and rolled his eyes. Disgust filled his chiseled face.
“Grace, this is all your fault. I can’t believe you married him! Look what’s become of our family.”
She didn’t have the guts to respond. Mark had a way of putting Grace in her place, but I knew better now.
I told Mark, “Beatrice knew they belonged together. You can’t fight the probabilities. You never could, and you can’t now.”
Mark sneered. “Alpha, take care of her.”
“I cannot harm a human,” Alpha explained.
“The law of robotics,” Mark murmured. He adjusted some programming on his watch.
This was my window of opportunity to stop the redistribution program. It was now or never...