Chapter 3 Aiden #2
Aiden shifted his attention to Darren then and observed him watch his father. There was a certain sadness in his gaze, though it was more subtle than the one he’d been unable to reel in the moment he’d had Sara in his arms.
“Excited and getting ready for their first trip to the Moon. So”—Garret let go of Peter and circled to the front of the workbench, leaning forward—“you sequenced it?”
“Mhm.” Peter grinned from ear to ear with pride for a few seconds, then schooled his expression. “Although, just like with ES-1, the first evolutionary sequence, on its own, it won’t give the desired effects…” he trailed off, frowning at the workbench.
Evolutionary sequence? Of what? Aiden peered at Darren, whose knitted eyebrows betrayed just as much confusion.
Peter sighed over a shrug and continued, “This is not quite what we were aiming for, but it is still a step forward in human evolution, Garret. And when the ES-2 is presented to a subject that’s already been treated by the first evolutionary sequence, the subject’s makeup will be altered.
We need a lot more tests before I can tell you exactly how, but my team and I believe that the results will surpass our projections. ”
Peter paused there and looked at Garret.
“This… It will change the human race. Once we can control the way it interacts with our DNA, it will advance us beyond what we imagined was possible when we started this project. We will…” He took a shaky breath.
“We will jump decades ahead… maybe even more, and in the meantime, we can make so many lifestyle improvements just by rolling out one of the sequences to the public.”
Aiden’s heart hammered in his chest. Human evolution.
That was the Valrais Legacy. Not money, not assets, not land or some other commodity.
If what the scientist was saying was true, the Legacy was so much more, a gift from the Valrais to the entirety of humankind.
Just like modern spaceflight. Because as crazy as it was and as little sense as it made, the Valrais monarchs hadn’t been after power.
They had been, literally, at the top of the food chain and yet they’d not exploited that.
They’d not enslaved the world as so many others would have, they’d intended to equalize the playing field for everyone and plunge humanity as a whole into an utopia Aiden couldn’t even imagine.
“Darren, this is…” he muttered, squeezing Darren’s arm. He had no idea when he’d reached out and Darren’s surprise at the contact told him it was mutual.
“When do you think we’ll be ready to start testing?” Garret asked, redirecting Aiden’s focus to himself.
“Not until I’ve exhausted all the simulations I can think of, Garret.
I’ve yet to figure out what the unknown variable I see in ES-1’s results is and why it’s missing from the initial results’ set I derived from ES-2.
Either way, I’ll let you know when I have something new.
” Peter held up the object he’d been carving, squinted at it, and gave it to Darren’s father.
It looked like a ring. “I’ve encoded the second sequence inside, just like I did the first in Sara’s ring. ”
“It’s marvelous,” Garret said in awe, holding the object at eye level so he could inspect it. “I’m sure Ren will love it.”
As the two men slipped into a conversation about the carving process and the data chip inside the ring, Aiden’s heart beat even faster. He whipped his head Darren’s way and squeezed Darren’s arm again. “Howe. Do you kno—”
Aiden cut himself off as Darren pinned him with sad but determined eyes. “That’s the ring my father gave me for my fifth birthday. Sara had one that looked exactly the same.”
They needed to get these rings. They had to. Before Marcus did, even if he didn’t know what they truly were. Because if he found out, everything was truly over for Darren. For both of them.
“Do you know where the rings are?” Aiden rushed out, his head spinning and his voice shaking.
“There’s a box hidden in my room. That’s where mine is. As for Sara’s…” Regret swam in the piercing depths of Darren’s eyes. “Marcus has it, along with the rest of the valuables he took from the Royal Palace and Estates.”
Fear clenched Aiden’s stomach. Marcus already had one of the rings. One of the evolutionary sequences. “The—”
“He doesn’t know, Kesley. Or he would’ve done something with the sequence already.” Darren smiled, a flicker of hope elevating some of Aiden’s anxiety. “But…”
“We have to retrieve it,” Aiden finished, feeling his words with every fiber of his body. “As soon as possible.”
Darren’s nod came just as a woman with a frayed lab coat burst into the room. She was maybe in her forties, had brown skin and wavy black hair, but the most notable feature was the blazing excitement living in her light brown eyes.
“Garret! Peter!” she panted, her gaze darting between the two men as her entire face lit up. She took a few deep inhales, sweat beading on her forehead. “You need to come with me! You have to see this! It’s… unbelievable.”
“Dr. Batbayar?” Garret said, eyebrows quivering in confusion. “Is everything okay?”
Her smile grew even wider, causing the hairs on Aiden’s arms to stand up. He didn’t know why, but he held his breath, her intensity getting to him as he awaited her answer.
“Oh, it’s more than okay!” She took another deep inhale, holding her chest with one hand. “We… I believe we just made history and changed the world!”
A shock of electricity surged through Aiden. His heart and mind raced. The Valrais had changed the world? Not once, but twice?
He looked at Darren and Darren looked at him, confusion and surprise taking over his face.
He opened his mouth to say something, but the memory fragment flickered just then, destroying the room and spitting them back out in the sunlit chapel, where Sara was perched on the edge of the dais, swinging her legs back and forth while Sir Barnaby Albus snoozed next to her.