XXI

HELENA

2,590 Years Before the Final Exodus

 

The farm was crowded.

Thersites' house was large, but not large enough for dozens. Many stayed there and others stayed in the barn. Many more began camping out in the fields where no crop had been planted in decades. Just five years ago, they got the genetic materials they needed. Their methods had been perfected and the new "people" were created at a brisk pace. At this point, there were twelve active models of artificial humans and at least six copies of each. They all carried a wealth of knowledge in various fields and many different implanted memories. Some shared, some not.

"When can we leave the farm, mother?" one of the brown-skinned females asked Helena.

"Soon," she smiled and touched the woman on the arm. "Father is still working on giving each of you identities so you can function in the outside world."

She smiled and walked away.

Helena walked into the barn, sidestepping bedrolls and books. Some of the models preferred to socialize only among themselves, but others were more outgoing. Helena made her way to the northwestern corner of the barn where she pulled open the hidden hatch. She climbed the ladder and was met by the same door she had seen every day for … Great Zeus. Twenty-five years?

As she realized this, she paused. "Well, last time for everything." She typed in the six-digit code and the door unlocked. With a swift turn, the door swung open and she saw Thersites at work on his computer and Tritos in his corner, reading a book. "Son, why aren't you outside?"

He looked up slowly, "I didn't want to go. I enjoy reading."

Helena nodded and she walked over to Thersites. "How much longer before we can go?"

"Minutes. I'm waiting on confirmations for the last group of documents."

Helena scanned the long table by Thersites and saw stacks of identity cards, forms and more. "And the transmission equipment? It's all set up?"

He sighed. "Yes, of course."

Not long after their trip to Delphi, Thersites and Lycamon improved the range of their organic memory transceivers. A couple of well-placed antennas in the northern hemisphere were all they needed to ensure that any of their "children" would be transferred safely to a new body. Shortly after that, Thersites said he had "taken care of" Lycamon, and try as Helena did, she couldn't muster any grief.

"What about attendants? Who was selected to remain here to monitor the equipment?"

"A Crassus, two Jasons and a Mylene. They all volunteered."

"I'm going to check out the incubators," Helena said while she walked across the lab.

The doors opened slowly, and warm, moist air spilled into her face. She caught her breath and stepped inside. The room was packed full of canisters, each containing a clone of one of the twelve models on life support. Each was ready for the near instantaneous transfer of a lifetime's memories.

She closed her eyes. Again, she cursed herself for not simply running away when they were in Delphi. It would have been so easy. She could have fled. She could have gone to the authorities or not. She was free of Thersites but she didn't take the chance. She knew she couldn't go to the authorities. She was just as guilty as he was. And she couldn't flee. Tritos was still under the barn. Locked in his room.

Outside, in the main lab, Thersites was typing. "Surely, you're pleased that you'll be able to leave here for good?"

Helena answered from inside the other room, "Of course. Tritos, as well."

"Yes, Tritos. Naturally."

"And you're pleased that you'll finally be away from me, too, right?"

Helena said nothing. She exited the incubation room and closed the doors. "Honestly, yes."

Thersites laughed. "Don't feel the need to conceal your disgust. I've known for years that you hated me."

"Hate is a strong word."

"But accurate." Thersites rolled his chair over to a printer and began removing the papers. "Admit it: I make you feel dirty."

Helena sat next to Tritos and put an arm around him. "Yes."

"Even though I helped you fulfill more in two and a half decades than you ever could have at the Asclepius School."

Helena inhaled deeply. "Perhaps that is true, but it doesn't change the nature of what we've done."

"You mean, 'What we've accomplished.'" Thersites stood and laid the documents on the table. "We've created a race of people with the potential for more than anyone else on the planet. We are their parents."

"I still do not …"

"Be quiet!" Helena lurched back in her chair and Tritos lowered his book. Thersites continued to speak, "I have endured your glares, your disdain, your snide comments and yes, your scalpel, for too long. Now you will endure me." He started to walk around the table. "I gave you everything you wanted. I gave you equipment and free reign to perform the science you wanted to perform. And now we have it. With what we've accomplished, we can cure diseases, clone better organs, better bodies, give the lame a proper body to inhabit, save the knowledge of society's greatest minds, and a multitude of things we can't even imagine at this point. Godsdammit," he chuckled, "we have virtual immortality at our fingertips!" Helena seemed dumbfounded, yet he still spoke. "The gods created mankind and we can turn mankind into gods."

"Stop."

"You're one of the greatest scholars of all time!" he yelled and swept his arms wide. "I helped you become that, but where is the gratitude?"

Helena looked at the floor and then over at Tritos. "Mother, we don't have to stay."

"You do, boy. You do." Thersites held his arms aloft and then motioned toward Tritos. "And that's the other thing! You! Your mother says she would do anything for you, and I believe she would. She only stayed because of you, or so she said."

"That is why," Helena said, softly.

"Yes. Not because she would be too ashamed to show her face publicly as a blasphemer and rebel against the Lords' commands. Not because she's ashamed of the two children we created and killed before you, Tritos."

Tritos held his head high, "Mother already told me about them."

"Oh," Thersites seemed disappointed. "I see." He walked around the table, now closer to the mother and son. "I guess that's it then. All of the documentation is complete, so everyone, including you two, is, uh, free to go."

Helena and Tritos stood, reaching out for the papers Thersites offered them. Thersites dropped the documents on the floor and lunged at the pair with two syringes. Helena managed to duck, but Tritos caught the needle in his arm. He jerked away before much of the medication was injected.

Tritos grabbed Thersites' arms and held them up, pushing him against the exam table. Tritos never had to exert himself like this but he managed to punch Thersites in the stomach, causing him to lose his footing. The son had his father pinned when Helena pulled a small handgun from her pocket and aimed it at Thersites' head.

"Where did you get that?" Tritos and Thersites asked simultaneously. A fair question, as firearms were not widely available to the public.

"My father was an officer in Delphi." Helena motioned to Tritos to step aside. "You remember my father. You exploited his condition to get me to join you."

Thersites shook his head, "You're overstating it. I knew about him, of course, and I knew that would help me convince you …"

"It's over, Thersites."

He straightened up and chuckled. "Really?"

"Yes. You have created a new race and, possibly, the solutions to many problems, both health related and not. But I can't afford to let you go."

"Why?" Tritos asked.

Helena didn't want to be distracted. "He could destroy us, Tritos."

"Not true, Tritos," Thersites said. "If I did, I would only destroy myself." He smirked, "She just wants revenge. She needs this because she thinks she has been held hostage here for twenty-five years. She could have left at any time, but she stayed."

"Yes, I did." She pulled the trigger once and a bullet tore into Thersites' abdomen.

"Are you stupid? You can't kill me." Thersites tried to stand up straight.

She pulled the trigger again, hitting Thersites in the upper chest. He collapsed onto the floor and fell under the exam table. A few moments later, he was dead.

Helena left the body and entered the incubator room. She blinked through the humidity and looked to her left at the six canisters in the far corner. The primary cables were still detached and the memory transfer nodes on the side of the canisters were all smashed.

"Come, Tritos. It's time to go."

Tritos was kneeling over Thersites' body. "I don't wish to go."

Helena stopped and turned. She was surprised, to say the least. "Why?"

"I will leave the farm, but I will not go with you." Tritos stood and walked toward the door. "I thought I knew … I thought I understood. This I cannot." Tritos walked through the door and climbed the ladder, leaving Helena standing in the lab with her gun.

She turned and looked at the body and at all of the equipment. She wanted to tear the room apart, but she knew that would only hurt her dozens of "children." Tears fell from her face and she walked mindlessly back into the incubator room. She saw the unplugged canisters containing lifeless clones of Thersites. Her anger welled up and she grabbed the first one, turning it over and spilling the body and gel onto the floor. She overturned the second, third, and fourth canisters. Then the fifth and sixth. Helena sat down in the gel surrounded by the lifeless bodies of her "captor," not knowing what to do next.