THE FOREVER GENE (THE SCIONS OF EARTH Book 1) (18 page)

The media fed the hysteria by keeping a running tally of the number of people inoculated.  Most channels permanently displayed a digital counter which shot ever higher as more and more batches were released.  The figure was already nearly two billion, and rising.

The social and environmental impact of the phenomenon was not lost on the world's political and religious leaders.  But the speed at which it happened caught them totally unprepared.  The Forever Gene hadn't caused a problem as it could only be afforded by the very rich.  Faerie Blood was so cheap that almost everyone on the planet could buy it.

Governments desperately introduced a variety of laws designed to stop their citizens from being inoculated.

In the United States, it was made compulsory for anyone who wanted Faerie Blood to undergo a rigorous medical examination first.  The examination was expensive and its requirements were designed to make sure that almost no-one would qualify.  The pharmaceutical companies challenged the law in the Supreme Court, which struck it down for being contrary to the right to life guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence. The Chinese and Indian governments reacted by banning Faerie Blood altogether.  Within days, it was available on the black market in both countries and the pace of sales actually increased.

The British government tried to tax it out of existence, setting massive surcharges on the price and on the profits of the local pharmaceutical companies.  It was a big mistake.  The official opposition instantly began a pro-Faerie Blood campaign and forced an election.  Needless to say, the ruling party lost and the taxes were abolished.

Katya grimaced at the excited babble of the Muscovites waiting in the queue.  Faerie Blood had become the latest fad, unique in that it traversed the generations.  Whole families waited together; grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren.  She didn't bother to flip to other news channels; she knew they would be showing similar scenes in other cities around the world.

The serum was also available on the moonbase and almost all of its personnel had already been inoculated.  General Armitage had gone so far as to command all American personnel to do so.  Katya still hadn't made up her mind about whether to have it or not.  The thought of living indefinitely was unnerving, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what made her feel that way.

Her 'mote chimed.  She scowled and checked her 'link.  If it was another query about equipment or stores...  Thankfully, it wasn't, but it was almost as bad; it was a message from Hans Mattheus.

When he had first arrived on the Moon, the garrulous young German had been courteous and friendly.  Everyone liked him, except the other delegation commanders whose authority he delighted in undermining at every opportunity. And even they respected him for his prodigious intellect.  Although she always kept her cool reserve firmly in place when he was around, she secretly cheered his casual disregard of orders or rules he didn't think were sensible.

She, of course, was at the other end of the likeability spectrum.  She was perceived by all and sundry as cold and unapproachable; the quintessential ice queen.  Any attempts to engage her in personal conversation invariably met with unyielding resistance.  As a result, she had no friends on the moonbase.  General Yashin had always treated her purely as a military subordinate.  Some of the other astronauts respected her abilities and conversed with her professionally, but that was as far as it went.

In her time on the Moon, only two people had been able to partially breach the veil of ice.  One had been the Mongolian reporter Qara-Chinua, who Katya had instinctively recognised as a kindred spirit.  Each of them was quietly efficient, fiercely independent and passionate in pursuit of what she believed in.  The principal difference between them was that the reporter naturally inspired loyalty from the people who worked with her; a quality the cosmonaut seemed to lack.  Soldiers followed Katya's lead in battle because of her tactical genius, but when the battle ended, so did their allegiance.  Perhaps that was why she had reached a ceiling in her military career.  Although they had not had many conversations beyond the regular interviews they conducted for Mongolia Today, Katya felt an unfamiliar pang of regret when Qara was recalled to Earth.

The other person was Hans Mattheus, whose chief method of dealing with Katya's ironclad reserve was to pretend it wasn't there.  With the departure of the Faerie Folk, she had been following the development of the star drive closely.  She had a vested interest in the subject; her studies of the star charts would be superfluous if there were no means of putting them into practice.

Having disassociated herself from the generals as much as possible, she spent more and more time in the company of Hans and his fellow scientists.  She found the lack of military inflexibility refreshing; the scientists simply did what was required when it was required.  There was no discernible chain of command among them, although they deferred to Hans whenever a serious difficulty arose.

Initially, she found him irritating.  He spoke incessantly, to anyone and everyone, dominating every conversation.  At first, when he spoke to her, she didn't respond at all.  It was a tactic which shut up most people.  Hans didn't seem to notice, in fact, he sought her out and spoke to her more often than anyone else.  Eventually, she became curious enough to ask him why.

"You don't distract me with gibberish," was his reply.

It dawned on her that he was someone who needed to speak to think.  It didn't matter whether the person he was conversing with said anything.  Weirdly, she was the perfect foil for him.

Rather unwittingly, she learned a great deal about the mechanics of the star drive from his lengthy monologues.  After a while, she was even able to offer small contributions to the conversation.  Most of them were haughtily ignored but, on occasion, he would take note of one of her observations and take it into consideration.

For two months after the departure of the Faerie Folk, the development of the star drive ran according to the blueprint mapped out by Analyst Ko.  Then, a few gremlins began to creep in.  Hans and his team were able to resolve the glitches as they arose, but more and more inconsistencies manifested themselves.  The whole programme no longer ran smoothly and Hans became moody.  His usually cheerful monologues became punctuated with long periods of silence and some days he was downright curt. Katya's natural reticence didn't help, and soon they were avoiding each other.

Inevitably, the original target date for bringing the star drive online was put back by two weeks, then four.  When the four weeks were up, the astrophysicists found themselves no closer to a working star drive.  This did not please Generals Armitage and Chang, who responded by heaping pressure on Hans and Harry Hasper.

When Katya received the voice message from Hans, she hadn't seen him for more than a week.  "I need to speak with you in the tech-centre," was all it said.  The tech-centre was where the development of the star drive was taking place.

Irritated by the abrupt tone of the message, she contemplated ignoring it and going to sleep.  Instead, she rolled out of the bunk and straightened her uniform.  The reason for her discontent, she suddenly realised, was that she desperately wanted the star drive project to succeed.  If it did not, many years of effort, study and sacrifice would be wasted.  And, however irritating he might be, Hans was the key to the whole thing.

It was late, at least according to the artificial moontime imposed by General Armitage, and the corridors were deserted.  So was the tech-centre, except for the dark-haired German, who sat slumped in front of a bank of screens.  Most of the lights and other screens in the room had been switched off, leaving him sitting in the gloom.

He spoke brusquely without looking round.  "So you don't like talking with me anymore?"

Ordinarily, she would respond to such a rude greeting by turning on her heel and walking out, but the strain in his voice made her look more closely at him.  He was dishevelled, his hair overlong and unkempt.  When he looked round at her she could see dark rings under his eyes and unshaved stubble on his chin.  She experienced another flash of insight into his personality.  He needed help but did not know how to ask for it.  He had probably never needed help before.

"How long have you been working in here?"

He looked at her blankly.  He had obviously lost track.

"I want to show you something."  He turned back to the screens and gestured to one on his left.  "This is the schedule left by the Faerie Folk.  According to this, we should have been ready to bring the star drive online by now."

He tapped at a touchpad in front of him and the schedule changed, showing a completion date in a month's time.  "As you know, we have encountered a growing number of problems with the blueprint.  This is the adjusted schedule taking into account the difficulties we have already encountered."

"So, it will take another month?"

He looked at her wearily. "Only if we have no further problems.  The thing is that, whenever we resolve a glitch, another two or three appear.  I think it is because every time we implement one of our solutions, it takes us another step away from the blueprint.  It is causing the rate at which the glitches are occurring to increase exponentially."  He tapped away again.  "If I calculate a progression based on the rate so far..."

She watched the schedule change rapidly, resulting in a completion date in eight years' time.  He was silent for a moment.  "And this is only if the rate remains constant and we are able to continue to find solutions.  If the rate continues to increase or we run into a problem we can't solve..."  He shrugged his shoulders and slumped even further into his chair.

She scowled.  "Then it is not something that can be achieved with our current resources.  The parameters of the project have changed.  The delegations must get more people and more hardware up here."

Hans didn't move.  "I have thought about that."

"You don't think it is the solution?"

"I know it isn't.  Yes, bringing in large teams of scientists and computer programmers will enable us to resolve glitches faster.  But that will just compound the problem.  The faster we resolve the glitches the more glitches will appear.  The problem will snowball at a faster and faster rate."

"Are you sure about this, Hans?  Have you spoken to the other delegation commanders?"

"Not Armitage and Chang.  They would not understand and I shudder to think what they would decide to do.  I have debated it with Harry.  He argues as you do; that we can do nothing but continue to resolve the glitches and trust that the blueprint itself is not flawed."

"Do you think it is?"

"Yes."

She came forward and sat in a chair alongside his.

"What do you think has gone wrong?"

"They built these glitches into the blueprint."

"Who did?"

"The Faerie Folk; I have had my suspicions for some time.  Now, I am sure."

"Are you saying that the Faerie Folk deliberately sabotaged the blueprint so that we would not be able to bring the star drive online?"

"Yes, I am."

Katya began to wonder whether Hans was so tired that he was becoming irrational. 

"Why would they do that?"

"I don't know.  There are many possible reasons.  Perhaps they are challenging us to make sure that we have the right problem-solving skills before we venture into space.  Or perhaps they want to delay us from travelling in space until we are ready in some way we are not yet aware of.  Or perhaps they do not want us to achieve space travel at all; or not in the time frame we expected."

Katya scowled.  "Hans, this doesn't make sense.  The Faerie Folk chose to come to Earth.  They demonstrated beyond doubt that they are far more advanced than we are.  They gave us valuable technology and asked very little in return.  They did not harm us or threaten to harm us in any way.  When they left, they left as peaceably as they arrived.  Why would they lie about giving us the ability to travel in space?  If it is a lie, they have gone to a great deal of effort to make us believe it.  Have you seen their star charts?  They have shown us that there is more to the universe than we thought.  If they don't want us to travel in space, why give us all of this information?  Why give us a flawed version of the star drive?  What purpose does it serve for them to engineer such an elaborate charade?"

Instead of becoming annoyed, which he had been too often lately, he smiled faintly.  "Ah, this is what I have missed; someone who is not afraid to disagree with me."

Katya's scowl showed no signs of diminishing.  "You don't need me to tell you this.  It is simple logic and you are an intelligent man.  Or so I thought; I am beginning to wonder."

He shrugged.  "I don't know the answers to your questions, but it is possible that the Faerie Folk came here for a reason we don't know about and that the star drive is just a diversion."

"A diversion?"

"Diverting our attention away from what is really going on."

"And what is that?"

"I don't know that either.  I am a scientist; I must have data before I can formulate a theory.  All I know is that the data I have so far leads me to believe that the star drive blueprint left behind by the Faerie Folk is fundamentally flawed."

Katya tried hard to adopt a more patient tone.  But it was late, and she was tired, and patience was not one of her virtues.  "I still don't understand it, Hans.  What makes you think this is so?"