Taiko enters the
laboratory and sees that the beakers, vats, and flasks have all been shattered
beyond repair. The pungent odor of acetone and hydrogen sulfide fills Taiko’s
nose. Taiko takes a step back as the smell permeates his olfactory bulb causing
neurons to fire off their neurotransmitters letting Taiko’s brain know that he
should cover his nose.
Taiko
eyes the disaster that is the laboratory. The once infamous cloning laboratory
owned by the one and only, Dr. Yomir Veschens, is in such disarray that it
seems unlikely any successes had come from this laboratory. But they had. Taiko
remembers his biotech classes and recalls Dr. Yomir’s accomplishments in the
field of cloning.
Dr. Yomir Veschens perfected the way
biochemists mapped the brain. His advances in the area of cloning led to a boom
in business for the profitable company known as Cromeaux Inc. His advancements also
helped secure the laws put in place by CONCORD which made it mandatory for all
capsules to be fitted with a brain scanner and that all pilots must have clone
contracts. This truly was the beginning of the end of death as we knew it.
After zoning out, Taiko begins rubbing his
eyes. They are burning now. No doubt the stinging sensation is caused by the
presence of chemicals. Taiko turns around and jogs out of the room to catch his
breath.
“We’re going to need respirators and chemsuits
for this job,” Taiko says as he rubs his eyes forcefully. “It is a chemical
nightmare in there. Who destroyed this lab?”
“Dunno Taiko, we jes’ doin’ our jobs like we’s
told,” Beanstalk says as concern spreads over his face. The guys working for the
cleanup crew gave him the nickname “Beanstalk” because of his stature. His
tall, lanky physique made him look slightly odd. The twang in his voice made
his appearance even more comical.
“Well I’m not looking forward to this job.
Working in chemsuits and respirators is such a pain in the ass,” Taiko says as
he turns left down the metallic hallway. The hallway is filled with lights that
flash and shimmer as his movement is detected. Taiko hears an occasional ‘blip’
coming from the walls, which means he is being watched.
Taiko reluctantly walks to the chem-station
to retrieve his chemsuit and respirator. He follows protocol as he fills his chemsuit
with antibacterial gas. The gas is designed to fight bacteria if the suit were
to become breached. Taiko calls headquarters to report the chemical spill and
decides to report the destruction to the station advisors.
Once the chemsuit is ready to be worn, Taiko
slides in to it with ease. “Zip me up, Beanstalk.”
“Aight, Taiko, jes’ gimme a sec,” Beanstalk
replies while jotting numbers down in his com unit. “There ya’ go Taik. You is
settled in and ya’ look like a foo’.”
“Yeah, I know. Another reason I despise these
damned things.”
They stalk in to the room. Their movements are
slowed and slightly robotic because of their suits. Taiko turns to Beanstalk
and nods his head, letting Beanstalk know it is time to do a hazmat scan of the
laboratory. The rad counter on Taiko’s HUD detects minimal levels of radiation,
so he switches the analyzer to its chemical mode. Acetone, hydrogen sulfide,
and allyl methyl sulphide are chemicals with the most concentration in the
room.
Taiko looks at Beanstalk quizzically and asks,
“Why in the hell would Dr. Yomir have this much garlic juice in here?”
“What you mean garlic juice? How you know
there is garlic juice?” Beanstalk replies curiously.
“Well, the allyl methl sulphide is most
commonly associated with garlic,” Taiko says as he adjusts himself inside the
chemsuit. “I just can’t seem to figure out what the hell Dr. Yomir would need
with garlic. I suppose that’s why he’s the brilliant biochemist and not me. Oh
well, it isn’t relevant. Everything is green, so we can proceed.”
The cleanup process takes Taiko and Beanstalk
the better part of a day to complete. Finally, all of their hard work is
rewarded with a clean, sanitary laboratory. “It’s about damned time, Beanstalk.
I can’t wait to get out of this damned suit.”
“I feel ya’ Taiko. I’s
ready fo' a nice, hot shower,” Beanstalk says with a smile.
Taiko begins his trek across the oddly shaped
laboratory when one of the desks catches his eye. The top is bent outwards,
which seems odd because everything in the laboratory is symmetrical. The
laboratories are designed this way to keep everything in order. It also keeps
objects from falling behind desks, tables, or anything else.
Taiko walks to the desk and examines it for a
moment. He realizes something isn’t right so he asks Beanstalk for a
socket-wrench. Taiko cranks the socket-wrench slowly to keep from stripping the
nuts. After a few minutes, the stainless steel desk is removed completely. “Hey, Beanstalk, what do you think this is?”
Beanstalk hurries over to Taiko and begins
eyeing the contraption on the wall behind where the desk used to be. “I dunno.
Whatever it is, I don’t think we is s’pposed to be messin’ wit’ it,” Beanstalk
says apprehensively.
“Well, I didn’t spend my entire day cleaning
this to find nothing of value. There’s always something in these laboratories and
since it’s abandoned, it’ll be mine,” Taiko blurts out, slightly frustrated at
Beanstalk’s apprehensiveness. Taiko scans the lock mechanism with his portable
x-ray machine. A small object can be seen on his HUD, which means something is hidden
behind the wall. “Well, there is definitely something inside. Let’s get it out,
Beanie.”
"Whatever you say, but
if’n they start aksin’, Imma’ gonna’ tell ‘em you done it” Beanstalk jokes as
he turns to the hallway to retrieve some tools.
Taiko takes the super-heated melting torch
from Beanstalk. Taiko pushes the button and the bright orange glow lights up
the room. As anticipated, the safe is open within a few seconds. A book sits in
a small cubby. The book, which looks more like a journal, is nothing
impressive. It is black with a CONCORD design on the cover. The gray star has
been faded and the entire book is covered in dust.
Taiko walks to a lab table and asks Beanstalk
to unzip the back of his chemsuit. “I don’t know what this is, Beanstalk, but
I’m sure it’s important.” Taiko flips through a few of the pages and notices
various chemical symbols and algorithms. “Damn, I should have paid more
attention in Computer Science class.”
“You and me both, bud. I knows I wouldn’t be
cleanin’ rooms fer a livin’ if I had. I’d have my own capsule and ship for sure,”
Beanstalk says with a hint of regret in his voice.
The pages of the journal are old and brittle. Some of
them are torn in half, while others are missing entirely. “Somefin’ dun seem
right wit dis, Taiko. I gots a bad feelin’ ‘bout dis.”
Taiko nods in agreement but says nothing. He
continues to flip through the pages. As he works his way back to the first
page, one statement catches his eye:
I am Dr. Yomir Veschens. It is YC 105. I
fear for my life knowing what I know.
Intrigued by this statement,Taiko continues
reading:
If the results of my tests are leaked to the public, the
laws regarding cloning might be overturned. I understand there is a lot of
money to be made and a lot of money that has been spent on the development of
proper cloning techniques and facilities, so there is a vested interest in
keeping this information a secret. I am not the only scientist to have
discovered these abnormalities. They have been reported time and time again
with the same result: destruction of the reports.
CONCORD thinks it best to keep this information from the
public. Being a man of science, I feel that all of my results must be
documented thoroughly, which is the purpose of this journal. This journal shall
be hidden until after I am gone so that I do not have to suffer the
consequences. If these test results were to be leaked, all parties involved
will surely be murdered and all information would be retrieved and destroyed.
As discovered with experimental groups A, B, and C, the
anomalies were apparent in 2.2% of those tested. The reasons for this anomaly
are unknown, but the repercussions to the individual are devastating.
The only logical assumption stems from the noisy sequence
integration. The noisy sequence integration within the entangled particles can
be interrupted by the noisy sequence of other similar entangled particles within
an uncertain proximity. Once this interruption occurs, the particles become
intertwined, thus producing a false transmission. The false transmission causes
one man’s brain to become implanted into another man’s clone.
If the clones were DNA free, this might not be an issue. Unfortunately,
CONCORD prohibits the use of DNA free clones. If we were able to use DNA free
clones, the health issues which arise from mis-cloning would be minimal. Unfortunately,
CONCORD has made it illegal for scientists to create a fully-functioning clone
that may be used by all. The reason? It is not cost-effective. Rather, it is
more difficult to charge a premium for clones
usable by all, because they are so easily obtained and used.
A clone that is free of all protein-markers will allow any
brain scan to integrate itself within the body of any clone. The integration
process takes about an hour, which means, upon death, the person must wait for
a period of no less than one hour to become reanimated.
Taiko takes a deep breath and stares at Beanstalk
with fear in his eyes and whispers, “Beanstalk, do you know what this means?
CONCORD has been lying to the public all along. It seems as if they aren't the
wonderful, peacekeeping, Democratic entity they claim to be. If this is true,
it means CONCORD is ruled by money, just like everyone else. The people of New Eden deserve to know this.”
Beanstalk stares at Taiko
for a moment, thinking about what he wants to say. “I tell ya’ Taiko, dat
information is da’ thing that’s gonna’ git you killt,” Beanstalk mutters as he paces the room, thinking about what should be done. “I thinks we needs ta’ get dat
thing somewhere’s safe so’s we don’t git caught.”
“I completely agree,” Taiko says quickly. Taiko’s mouth is
dry, his skin is ghost-white, and his heart is pounding in his ears. The panic
diminishes as he slides the journal into his M-TAC. Taiko turns to Beanstalk
and says, “I’ll make sure this gets back to my quarters A-S-A-P. There must be
more to this and I want to read the rest of it.” Taiko exits the laboratory.
***
Taiko
feels relieved as he walks through the hydraulic doors of his living quarters
on the 17th floor of the Expert Housing Production Plant in Jita. He
secures the door before removing the journal from his M-TAC. Once more, he
checks the lock on the door and proceeds to the bright-green couch situated in
the center of the room. Before Taiko reaches the couch, Mihala, his genetically
modified dog, comes bumbling toward him. As fluffy and as short as a rabbit, yet as
tall as a Great Dane, Mihala was a geneticist’s worst nightmare. Taiko
remembers the day he found Mihala like it was yesterday.
Taiko had
been cleaning the room next to a genetics laboratory when he overheard the
geneticists laughing about something. They were laughing at the product of an
accidental implantation of Chihuahua DNA into the embryo of a Great Dane. When
Taiko heard one of the men saying it was time to put the thing out of its misery, Taiko bolted through the door and begged them for the pup. They agreed reluctantly. Taiko took the pitiful-looking animal home and
cared for it the best he knew how.
Mihala
stands about four feet tall, but is only 1 ½ feet long. Taiko’s guests always make
fun of Mihala, but Mihala doesn’t care. She’ll just prance around in circles as
everyone chuckles at her. Aside from her odd physique, she is the best pet
Taiko has ever owned.
Mihala begins licking Taiko’s face as he
plops down on the couch. “Hey Mihala, did you miss me?” Taiko says as he begins
scratching her ears. She licks at his arm and becomes excited. “I missed you
too, girl!”
After
petting Mihala for a moment, Taiko starts reading once more, continuing from
where he left off:
The integration process takes about an hour, which means,
upon death, the person must wait for a period of no less than one hour to
become reanimated.
As I stated previously, this reduces the cost of the
process, but lengthens the time of animation. If CONCORD were to implement
these measures to prevent abnormalities in the cloning process, they would
stand to lose a lot of money due to the fact that these clones cost
next-to-nothing to produce. This is why they destroyed all evidence of mis-cloning.
Mis-cloning should not be ignored. This problem points to an
inhumane practice that can be fixed, but the powers-that-be have decided it
best to ignore the issue. I fully disagree with such an inhumane approach to
immortality and will do whatever I can to bring this issue to the forefront.
This journal must be kept safe.
Our current cloning practices are inhumane because a person
that falls victim to mis-cloning will live his/her last few days in pure agony.
When the noise sequences interfere with each other, they force one man into
another man’s clone. From a scientific standpoint, this is a travesty, because
each person carries a unique set of protein markers on each cell.
These protein markers are how the body's immune system knows which cells are foreign. Once a foreign marker is detected, the body's immune system will begin attacking those cells. In the case of a mis-clone, the foreign cells are the brain cells and, without immunosuppressants, the incoming brain has no chance of survival. Unfortunately, the immunosuppressants may not work fully. If they do work, the clone must continue taking immunosuppressants for the rest of his/her life. Unfortunately, it is most likely the person will die, immunosuppressants or not.
Not only will the mis-cloned person die, but they will
suffer a torturous death. Headaches, nausea, vomiting, hallucinations,
blindness, paralysis, and a number of other symptoms will make the rest of the
cloned individual’s life hell.
The period from mis-cloning to death is between five and
nine days. On very rare occasions, the clone’s body WILL accept the new brain
without many issues aside from the devastating psychological effects that mis-cloning
can have on an individual.
Imagine waking up in someone else’s body. Using our current
cloning process, a person’s ganglia and dendrites are pre-placed in the clone.
The dendrites are what send signals throughout the body, but they also have
memorized pathways that can produce memories. Since the ganglia and dendrites are intact, the
mis-cloned person will often share memories with the previous owner. This will
cause conflicting memories, memory loss, confusion, paranoid delusions, and
most often, schizophrenia of the worst kind.
Taiko feels
sick to his stomach. “How many people have had to deal with this,” he wonders.
“Does this still happen? I simply can’t imagine how this might affect the
cloning facilities scattered throughout New Eden.”
Taiko looks at Mihala with puzzled eyes. He
scratches her head. Mihala dances around, oblivious to the problems at hand. Taiko
tries to find the right course of action, but is uncertain how to proceed.
“Should I tell someone and risk being murdered, Mihala?” Mihala yipped and then
barked. Taiko laughs at Mihala’s ability to produce both a Chihuahua yip and the
deep, throaty bark of a Great Dane.
Taiko
decides that it will be best to tell someone, but has to continue reading.
The last capsuleer that suffered this fate at my hands was
Jaiden Blade. She was an astonishing captain and had a large memory core. The
image of her brain was expensive to transfer. Unfortunately for her, she fell
victim to mis-cloning and ended up in Bolshai Camden’s body. I still hear her screams
at night. They haunt me day and night.
Jaiden was in such agony that I took another brain scan
while killing her. The result was shocking to me. She was never revived. I
still, to this day, have no clue what happened to her mind. I know that the
transmission was complete; it had to have been complete – the transmissions
were never an issue for me. I can only assume that she is dead and gone. I
hope, because the alternative would be devastating.
I reported the incident to CONCORD and was put under
quarantine. They destroyed my research and threatened my life and the lives of
all family members. They kept me under tight surveillance, but luckily, I was
able to write this journal without being caught. I hope the person that finds
it will take it to the right people, preferably the Jovians. The Jovians
understand the repercussions of messing with DNA; they will know what to do.
Taiko sits for a moment, speechless. He
decides to do exactly what Dr. Yomir requested. He must contact a few people
before he will be able to get in touch with the Jovians. Taiko decides it best
to tell someone before making the trip to Jovian space.
Taiko picks up his com unit and types in his
friend Cullin’s frequency. He then taps out the encryption code and hits the connect
button. At that exact moment, Taiko’s door opens. Taiko’s heart stops. He
cannot breathe. He cannot speak. He knows this is the end. He drops the com
unit, which is still on, and attempts to hide. They are too fast.
The bullet pierces through Taiko’s abdomen, shredding
his small intestine and spilling pieces of partially-digested food on to the
floor. The burning hole left smoking in the middle of his stomach sends fire
throughout Taiko’s body. Taiko screams in agony as he crumples to the ground.
“Directive complete, sir. Taiko Lucious is
down,” says one of the soldiers standing in the doorway. A faint static can be
heard in the room. “That is correct, sir. Conrad Byloff, otherwise known as
Beanstalk, has been apprehended. We have him in custody. Level Five Security,
yes.”
Static.
The soldier ignores the static. “Yes, sir. The
interrogation process will begin immediately.” The soldier robotically walks to
the smoking body of Taiko. He rolls Taiko over with his metal boot. The
intestines have been exploded and cauterized. Taiko is still alive, but he is
in so much pain that he passes out.
Static.
“Yes, Executor Tibus. We have Dr. Yomir’s journal.”
