Friday 14 September 2007

ASBO-Boy, The Battle of Dyfatty, Part Four

The door dissolved into nothing and Helix stepped through. He felt resolution coming, like an unstoppable wave; it was coming towards him out of the darkness like destiny.

The air was stale, thick with neglect and dust. With an offhand gesture he flicked the lightswitch on. Power thrummed in the deep of the flats. Behind him Helix could feel Vue, he could almost taste his anxiety in the air, but Helix felt calm. For the first time in a long time he felt like was going to get answers. Silent answers. Physical truth that spoke for itself.

The walls and floor were bear, bleached concrete with imposing steel doors set into the fortress-like structure. These ones had large naval door locks, but they were nothing to Helix. Wall after wall melted away before him. The communicator in his skinsuit spat static in the reinforced bunker. Stairs and long corridors led them deeper and deeper into the heart of the structure. At a guess, it went on for miles in every direction.

They were at the city's sub-level and many of the corridors intersected pipelines that threaded their way to the whole city. Gas, water, electricity and sewage. Everything monitored at different stages. Areas were set aside with computers and equipment that were already ancient. This place had been here for a long time. Since before Helix was born – before the turn of the millenium.

"Vue," Helix said softly, his voice shattering the silence. "What do you think?"

"I see pipes and walkways. Nothing incriminating. Nothing." Vue replied, his voice bright and brittle.

"I asked for what you think."

Vue didn't answer for a time. "I think we should go back."

Helix smiled sadly and walked on. Eventually the maze led them to a control room. A multi-tiered room full of computers all facing a wall of screens and a floor to ceiling map of Swansea. On it, one could see all the pipelines that fed Swansea and all the relative post codes. The map was pre-division, so none of the walls showed up.

"It's a distribution centre." Helix surmised, looking at all the left over print outs. Flow readings, charts of productivity and control.

"For what?" Vue demanded. Helix watched him trying to forcibly deny the evidence before him, but to Helix it all seemed clear for once.

"Lies?" Helix pondered aloud. His words were heresy. Not that officials would use that word, it was too loaded with spiritual overtones.

"So they've been controlling the water supplies." Vue shrugged. "Clean water's got to come from somewhere."

Helix touched the power buttons on the central computer. It was laid out in the centre of the room and isolated from the others. It must have bellonged to the most imprtant member of the team.

The old fashioned layout of the interface was a doddle for Helix to overturn. The system was his within minutes of ingress. He recognised the code and the operating system as early authoritarian – before it broke away from the then monopolising system that the whole world had used. Euryale had once talked of its invention. He needed his own OS to protect his work. Here it was.

Helix processed through the words and files until he found one in particular: proposal. An old movie file – before they were banned. A recorded image. The idea was exciting and wrong.

His finger clicked the icon without hesitation.

"The systematic introduction of the Pantheon Project," Dr Euryale's voice boomed through the fuzzy speakers in the room. It was cold, as ever, younger and transformed by the eery echo. "A proposal to the government for funding. The project has several key steps, the first is the introduction of the Pantheon serum into the general water supply, city-wide. As the research states, the serum works residually, building up in individuals over a long period of exposure. The second part of the project involves use of radiation to activate and encourage Pantheon at the celluar level. Its design is based on Cancer – cells overtaken by Pantheon rapidly begin to change and reproduce but at a much slower rate. Early stages have shown that foetuses show great compatibility with the serum, but radiation in large doses can be damaging to mother and baby. City wide application of radiation would massage the Pantheon cells to maturity, fundamentally transforming the genetic make-up of the individual.

"For millenia, human-kind has developed and evolved to become the dominant species. Our brains and our capacity for understanding have made this possible. Now, thanks to the brain, evolution is within our grasp to control and nurture. The next level in human development is the heart and soul of this project."

Helix watched as the timer on the video ran to the end and stood back from the console. He'd been right. Anger and hurt didn't seem to enter into the equation. He was stunned. The truth that his feelings were correct, that his anxiety hadn't been without basis was possibly more shocking than the video itself.

Doctor Euryale had lied and the authorities supported it.

Where did that leave the Elementals? Were they just pawns, or was there a grand design hidden here that he wasn't seeing? Helix began to feel his control slip and the room shook, plaster fell from the ceiling. A hand gripped his arm and he spun in an instant, as if to strike. It was Vue. His face was fixed in an expression caught between fear and thunder. In that moment Helix knew that something had changed between them. A simple understanding had been forged in the belly of the lie that promised fire and damnation to come.

1 comment:

Steve Middleton said...

Just passing through......