The God Gene - YA Version Page 3

  “Oh, I have to admit, that is rather believable. And what about me? I know I said I’d lose myself in the lie that our relationship has become, but it’s been all I can do to…”

  She hushed him by putting her finger over his lips. “No one is going to be monitoring too closely what a primitive like yourself is up to. You’re no threat to anybody.”

  “But you, you probably have at least fifty satellites aimed at you night and day. Sooner or later…”

  “It’s not that kind of world anymore, Nova. Sure, the people on top want to know what the people on the rungs below them are up to, same as ever. But we have a lot of the same tech tools they have now to spy on them. It’s an everybody-spying-on-everybody world now. Decentralization of intel keeps everyone safe.”

  “Or turns everyone into paranoid psychopaths.”

  She squeezed his shoulders supportively. “Mostly it’s a lot of scientists keeping an eye on one another to see when collaborating makes more sense than competing to save time and money to develop whatever they’re working on. There are bad people out there, and there always will be, but we’re far better at neutralizing them than ever. So long as there are more of us it’s them who should be worried.”

  When she saw he wasn’t buying it, she said, “It’s no longer easier to destroy than to create, Nova. Hard to be ruled by a psychology of perpetual need when you can have pretty damn well whatever you want. No need to take it from others. It’s no longer a world of scarcity; it’s a world of abundance. Don’t believe me, turn on the news.”

  “It’s all one big cover up for all the dirty dealings going on out there. They used to want people to cower in fear with nothing but bad news so they trade in their freedom for security and more military and police presence, for Big Brother. Now they figure they can keep everyone in line better by dumping nothing but good news on them day and night, so they start believing all the ugliness of the world is a thing of the past.”

  She laughed even though she realized she was being condescending. “A healthy eco-system maintains a place for those who thrive in the darkness as well as those who thrive in the light. Your nonprofit Ecosystems Restoral Inc. should have taught you that much.”

  “I might claw my way to seeing your side of things better if the deal were sealed with a kiss.”

  Corona thought about it and decided enough harsh words had passed between them that she could benefit from some tenderness as well. Her mind, what’s more, would have to get used to changing gears fast if she was going to be tracking down Nova’s would-be killers. With that in mind, she pulled him in for a strategically applied smack on the lips.

  She was still deciding how she felt about his unruly mop of blond hair. Maybe he should go with hairless to maximize the effect of the night-glow skin? At least there’d be no more talk about her electric-blue curly hair kept just above the neck. It didn’t rank as a topic of conversation after this skin-altering stunt. He might also do better trading in his strong jaw for her narrow, more anime-like chin. And the equally invisibly small-pore complexion she was blessed with.

  “Ahhhh!” he squawked, his vertebrae cracking from the force of the hug. “When did you get stronger than me?” A second later it dawned on him. “You have nano throughout your entire body! Not just in your brain?”

  Out of curiosity, she flicked off the lights. There was the visiting the planetarium effect she was hoping for; his skin phosphoresced so brightly he was throwing patterns against the walls.

  He was panting; she wasn’t sure how much of it was from shock over her bioenhanced strength or being startled by his own light show. She lifted him easily onto the dining table. “Oh, I get it,” he said. “This is you trying to get me used to the idea of super-woman, even if I don’t know what all her powers are exactly.” He was still coming up for air after the latest kiss, which she’d applied in a feeble attempt to silence him. “Nice trick, lowering my resistance to the idea by getting more blood going to my mouth than to my brain. You’re so manipulative, I swear.”

  Nova appeared to be getting lost in the psychedelic light show that his own glowing skin was giving him, tracing his shifting emotions, thoughts, and body temperatures, all reflected off her abdomen. Because the next thing she knew, he was kissing her other than on her lips, perhaps in an effort to chase down the manna from heaven on her belly. Maybe in his mind the light patterns had tastes. She decided to accommodate his delusion by secreting different pheromones in tandem with the shifting patterns of lights. If he lingered in one place with his moist lips, she figured that meant he wanted more of that hallucinogen. Her nanites could procure most anything in the moment. If he needed an explanation later, she’d just lie to him if he looked more horrified than turned on by the idea.

  Later, after the romantic timeout, they were thinking clearer. For Nova that meant awareness finally pushing past denial. “Techa, what a slap in the face.” He shoved his disheveled mop of hair out of his eyes and up off his forehead, and stared at the ceiling, as if trying to zone out to his own lightshow. “As standoffish as I am with transhumanism, to wake up and find myself to be one of their failed experiments. Tell me, is Techa a god of irony too?”

  As the lights his phosphorescing skin was throwing off against the walls changed, he seemed to be tracking them, along with her, to see how he really felt about being possibly even more transhuman than her.

  FOUR

  “Hey! What the hell?” Mercedes shouted.

  Nova looked up at her in the trees, strapped fast to the thick trunk of the old oak by way of climbing vines which held her fast. The creeping ivy had yanked her off the ground so quickly she still couldn’t believe what was happening to her. The more she struggled against the trailing plants, the more they tightened their grip. “Sorry,” he said. “Been having trouble controlling my mind of late.”

  “No kidding! Let me out of here.”

  “You sure? I mean you may as well take a load off. My feet are killing me.”

  She shook her head and smiled. “How does your girlfriend put up with you?”

  “Um, that’s a bit of a sore subject right now, if you don’t mind.”

  “How did you get the vines to do this anyway?”

  “They read the pheromones we emit and respond accordingly. Apparently there’s a chemical language our bodies speak in that’s every bit as specific as the words we use, maybe more so. I guess I was feeling overly creeped out by this section of woods and…”

  “And…?” She struggled some more against the vines but seemed to be settling into the whole idea of having a respite from hiking through treacherous terrain. They had been footing it for some time.

  “Hell, the tree is smarter than we are. So are the vines, considering they can network with one another to form as large a group mind as they like. The entire ecosystem of this forest is sentient. And don’t get me going about the bacteria. That might be the most powerful group mind of all.”

  “How? Why?”

  “This used to be a suburb adjacent to the city. Now it’s being repurposed as a forest as part of habitat restoration that started in the 2030s. Only, we have instructions to make it seem like a magical forest for the kids. Half the people living in suburbia refused to leave, so it’s more to give the kids something to do and to draw them out of VR long enough to exercise their bodies.”

  “So what, the families that stayed behind get to pretend they’re hobbits?”

  “That’s about the size of it,” Nova said, surveying the house the giant sycamore had grown over and around to the side of him.

  Mercedes eyed her restraints again. “Let me guess, this is the block where the ones who fancy trolls and goblins and have a penchant for dark fantasy hang out. I’m to be kept here until the creatures of the night decide to throw me into the stewpot.”

  Nova snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

  He took the machete dangling from his waist and chopped Mercedes down. She rubbed her raw wrists as she got used to supporting her own weight again. “Your sentient vines don’t complain?” she said.

  “Nah, they just crawl back to where they got cut off and reattach themselves. They seem to understand humans can’t entirely control their minds, which is why whoever designed this ecosystem made it smart enough to know when to override the wants and desires of the individual life forms parading through it. I think that means you wouldn’t actually cook in the goblin stewpot; it would probably feel more like a warm Jacuzzi.” He’d held out her hand to her mouth for her to spit in as he was talking to her, which she had. And now he was rubbing her wrists with her nano-infused spit.

  He glanced down and saw that her wrists were healing up nice. Her skin felt surprisingly soft, considering her get up, part GI Jane, part Daredevil. She was a trained survivalist, among other things, and so came equipped with what it took to keep them alive out here for months on end if they got lost in the forest or one of them got injured. Trained as in just one more download to her mindchip and nano net.

  “Are you done copping a feel in the guise of being all sensitive and caring?” she said.

  “Yeah, if you can tell me how to be less transparent next time.”

  She smiled despite wanting to smack him. “How does your girlfriend put up with this?”

  “We find totally bombing with other people we hit on really reinforces our love for one another.”

  She laughed so hard she teared up.

  “I definitely have a talent for making women cry,” he said.

  “I thought we were here to fix an ant problem.” Her tone helped focus him like a whip directed at a lion on a stool.

  “We are, actually. Just need to find the damn ants in question.” Nova held up his scanner. “This way.”

  Mercedes seemed more rel
axed, and less all-business since her little bondage scene, which, sad to say, didn’t exactly pan out to Nova’s benefit. She was starting to take in more of the surroundings as she adopted a more leisurely pace. He no longer had to struggle to keep up with her, which had triggered the earlier fantasy, having to stare at her ass up in the distance so much. Of course, he couldn’t tell her that. “I’ve seen old growth forests less impressive than this place,” she said.

  “It’s the altered genetics. The giant trees grow like weeds on Miracle-Gro. They’re more like living CRISPR-machines. They can alter the genetics of their fruits, nuts, flowers on the fly to procure more or less genetic diversity depending on how things are working out.”

  “If the whole place is so damn self-sustaining, what does it need us for?”

  “That’s a very good question.” Nova fiddled with the scanner some more then pointed them in another direction, up another trail.

  The forest felt hot and humid in response to the noon day sun. A place where winds came to die against the dense growth. Too bad, a strong breeze would be soothing. Might even massage his muscles, sore from all the hiking. He was crawling out of his skin. He could trace the river of sweat trickling down his back far better than the one on his handheld scanner. As annoying and distracting as it was, it brought welcomed relief against the itching skin. He was convinced he was being eaten alive by bugs, but every time he scratched there was nothing to discover but his misfiring nervous system. It was like a rite of passage for him every time he stepped into a forest. Soon he’d adjust and stop feeling so uncomfortable in his own body. For the tactilely sensitive, being out in nature was akin to torture. Ironic, for a Green.

  He noticed the imaginary bugs stalking him were becoming increasingly real, as he swatted them away from his face.

  “What’s with the damn insects?” Nova said as they trailed through a darkly shaded section of the forest. Moths and butterflies, bees and wasps, and flying bugs he couldn’t begin to identify were buzzing around him with such intensity he felt as if a cloud had descended, shielding the fact that they’d stepped onto an airport runway.

  She laughed. “You’re like a night light with your phosphorescent skin. Nice paint job, by the way. Meant to comment earlier, but you eying me was kind of getting in the way of me eying you.”

  “It was supposed to help me save on electricity,” he said, marching on and doing his best to ignore his sudden gross disadvantage when it came to forestry management, short of becoming an entomologist.

  “You sure you picked the right genetic makeover for you? You’re like the most mercurial person I know.”

  “Why does everyone think I’m so excitable?!” His phosphorescence blazed so bright the insects actually retreated.

  The trail led them back into the light. “Thank Techa,” Mercedes said. “I was starting to swallow bugs by the truckload just to get in my snarky one-liners. Worth it, but… I had my protein fix for the morning already.”

  She spit out one of the butterflies she’d nearly choked down with a cough. When she bent over to support herself on her knees so she could finish hacking the last of the bugs out, she lost sight of where she was placing her feet. Thereby stepping on a juvenile Capybara that couldn’t get out of her way in time. In a span of a few seconds she’d thus managed to leave two creatures fatally wounded, just not dead.

  “Great, really appreciate the make-work, Mercedes,” he said, dropping to his knees and getting out the necessary surgical tools he needed from his arm pouches to attend the Capybara first. With the more advanced brain, evolutionarily speaking, it would endure more fear and panic and pain than the butterfly, which would be made to suffer in its own way until he could get to it. After euthanizing the tailless rodent with an injection, he placed it on a rock to assist his surgery. He peeled back the skin with a scalpel, stapled the cracked ribs back together with self-dissolving staples. Closed the ribcage back up by stretching the skin back over it and stitching it together. Splinted the leg with a splint that would be chewed off by the time the limb healed. The final injection was a nanococktail to help boost the animal’s recovery system. It hadn’t lost much blood thanks to being put in a semi-cryogenic state by the first injection. But any help it could get, he was sure it would appreciate it. Estimated recovery time: a few hours tops. Hopefully enough time to prevent him becoming fodder for predators.

  Nova attended the butterfly next. He didn’t have the manual dexterity to do much for its semi-crushed thorax. Not out here in the field. Not in the timeframe he had. The nanococktail would have to mend most of that. After administering that injection, he sprayed the wings to get its protective colors back to what they were and to fix the holes in the wings. The nanomist would take their cues from the butterfly’s genetics. Soon enough the wings were their vibrant blue and black again. And entirely filled in. The creature picked itself up in the palm of his hand, fluttered its wings to test them out, then flew off less than a minute later.

  “For what it’s worth,” Mercedes said, “the teenage hormones getting in the way of your romantic streak are more forgivable after seeing you sweat your own blood for creatures that can’t wait to get away from you.” So she had been wise to his ruse earlier!

  “Yeah, after my first ten girlfriends I learned to take the running away from me part less personally.”

  She smiled despite herself. And he reminded himself she was twenty-nine, not nineteen, like he was. So maybe he should tone down trying to hump her leg every five seconds.

  Mercedes pointed her own scanner about. She was an entomologist, a herpetologist, a mammologist, a soil expert, for whatever they called those guys, and a few other things. Mostly whatever degrees she could store on her mindchip, which, technically speaking, was in her forearm. “I hate to break it to you,” she said, eying her scanner that she’d been pointing at the various varmints, “but I don’t recognize any of these creatures. I could guess as to their class. As this is definitely a kind of slug, and that a kind of butterfly, but none of these lifeforms exist in our databases.”

  “Not anywhere on the mindnet?”

  “Nope.”

  “I guess that figures based on what I was saying earlier.”

  “But wouldn’t the supersentience of the forest share its creative output with the net for the greater good of all? They’re supposed to be programmed that way.”

  Nova couldn’t deny she had a point. “Maybe it’s part of the hack.”

  “The hack? You think that’s what’s causing the problems with our rogue ants? Someone hacked the forest ubermind?”

  “What other explanation you got?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” She stared at the 5x7 screen of her scanner which was now rapid-coursing through any lifeform it found in the area far better than her own eyes could manage. Meaning she was starting to look at the screen more than where she was walking and tripping more as a consequence. Nova kept grabbing her arm to stabilize her. “I can see why the kids would fall in love with this place,” she said. “Alice in Wonderland, my ass. This is the real wonderland.” She finally looked up from the screen to behold the panda bear gazing down at her.

  Instead of black and white the panda was orange and purple. And it was eating mangoes and flowers instead of bamboo. It stopped what it was doing and waved at them. “You’re headed in the right direction for the ants,” he said.