24. Plotweaver #3
Zhou took a deep breath, though it did not calm his affect. “I said, how did Nichley lead you here?”
“Let me share the file we received. Open your neurospace for a handshake.”
“He doesn’t have one,” Naoma said. “He is one.”
He scoffed and shook his head. “Tap my temple and I’ll accept it.”
Looking up at me, I could see the subtle inhuman touches in his face that could lead someone to question just how human he was.
His features weren’t perfect, which would have led me to question Naoma’s claim, had I not trusted her.
The faint remnants of a scar below his right eye and the bags under his eyes were wise additions to an otherwise perfect and.
Anyone without Naoma’s knowledge would find accusations that he wasn’t human preposterous.
I touched his temple and transferred the Beef2-brothel file to him, though I had since remained it with a nonsensical scramble of letters and numbers.
He started my hand away with a grunt as if it had stung him. “You zeggin–”
He stopped as the orca cried out. She pointed her tentacles through the doorway and moved close enough to crack its frame.
Zhou raised his hands. “I’ll be a good boy.” Frustration was still apparent in his voice. His eyes flashed in his neurospace a second later. “The whole zeggin’ palace, too?”
“So you can be as candid as we need,” Naoma said. “No need to worry about the boss watching over this meeting.”
“You’re not talking about Nichley, are you?”
“No,” she replied, though I wasn’t sure how sure she was.
It made sense that Zhou could be a step below the Beacon tied to the largest entertainment company, but there were no rules saying that each Beacon had to represent a certain branch of society.
With how much entertainment shaped our world.
It would only make sense to have multiple Beacons controlling that vehicle.
“Good,” Zhou said. “At least you have some sense.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Is that a rivalry that I hear?”
“That shac would like my domain, but I digress. I despised him before, but even more now that he directed your mess towards me.”
I almost laughed at hearing the and before me calling something that had at least been human, a shac.
“He didn’t,” she said.
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
Naoma chewed on her lip. Her focused gazed showed how much thought she was putting into her response.
She went right for it. “Where do you fit in the Gongtide?”
“Where do you stand?”
“What do you mean?”
“For, or against.”
“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
He shook his head. “Not as much as you might think. This isn’t a simple corporation or club.
Even for those there are often plenty of disagreements.
Just look at the world. Plenty of countries and conglomerates claim to fight for the proliferation of humanity while they end life in pursuit of that very thing. Humanity is illogical.”
“And that’s why you’ve betrayed it?”
“Humanity betrayed itself first.”
“And that is an excuse for this?”
He glared at her. “Just tell me what you want and we can move on. I’ll–”
“Fine, I’ll start. Who are the Eclaines to you?”
“Those dead zealots? What would an elite like you want with their filth?”
We needed to be blunt. I was already tired of receiving his opinions where I was seeking facts.
“Are you a Beacon?” I asked.
“Who are you besides some hitman for her?”
“Answer him,” she demanded.
“Why? Tell you so you can kill me after? I’m done with this guk.” He closed his eyes. The light lines on his body faded.
Naoma and I exchanged panicked glances. We ran to his seat, looking for anything to repower the body as it slumped towards me. I pushed Zhou back up, then ripped his silk robes off as I felt around his body for a reset button.
The seat’s charging light continued to glow.
Naoma pulled me back. Her hand started to glow with white light. She held it out, just above Zhou’s chest.
“Close the door!” The orca obeyed her command. I could still see the sea-mech’s presence through the crack of the door, but we had enough privacy.
“No one to see me now, right?” she asked.
I nodded.
She grabbed his face, nails digging into his cheeks like talons. Her hand pulsed and white filled the light lines throughout his body. His head shot up, mouth agape, with only white in his eyes.
White pulsed down the center of his chest from a previously unseen line. The line separated a crack, then let out a gust of steam before opening wide.
If I hadn’t already grown used to the abomination that was David, I would have vomited.
It looked up at me and turned its head towards Naoma, pivoting on its neck like a frog.
“What is it?“ I asked.
It focused back on me. Multiple tubes and wires connected to the back of its naked body.
Cradled like an infant and looking like one, it was about as large as my head.
Though I wanted to call it human, its infantile form was aged much more than any human child.
It was rather smooth and free of wrinkles–save the folds in the skin–but its gaze had an uncomfortable sense of knowing.
I could see the veins though its pale skin and the subtle pulsations of a heartbeat.
It had neither nipples, nor a naval. There was a small, phallic shape in its groin that looked like it had not yet developed into complete genitalia, though it was enough to call it a male.
I mustered up the courage to look at his face.
Two slits showed the beginning development of a nose, right above his lipless mouth.
He had baggy eyelids rimming too-large eyes with widely dilated pupils, making him appear almost cartoonish.
He had no hair, nor was there any hint of growth.
He wheezed out what sounded like a laugh.
His voice was childlike, though with an uncomfortable distortion, like a sign of nature refuting its hands in creating this thing.
Naoma cleared her throat. “It’s a Predecessing Homunculus.”
The thing wheezed. “Water.”
Next to its head a tube leaked with blue light-infused drops. Naoma pinched it between her forefinger and thumb. She moved it close to the thing’s mouth but pulled back as it leaned over. It didn’t have the energy to fight her for it.
“Water,” he asked again.
“Are you a Beacon?”
He looked at me and pleaded for water as if I would have any more mercy than her.
“What is a Predecessing Homunculus ?” I asked.
“A horrific attempt to resurrect the dead. I’ve seen it once. Do you remember Minney Jar?”
“I’m not that into older music, but I know him. Is he still alive?”
“Oh, he died, but they tried to bring him back. He did a solo tour a year ago I think.”
“Right, and a lot of people complained that his body was too augmented to make him the real thing?”
She nodded. “It was obvious to anyone that he was more and than human at that point. Anton went over this with me because he was considering investing, but it crashed out. I thought the market was dead, but apparently not.”
“Was Minney a thing like this?”
“They tried to cover it up, but yes. Anton showed me because he had some industry friends that warned him not to invest when the ‘resurrected’ star was nothing more than a mechanical suit of a failed attempt at a human clone.”
“Did they clone him before his death?”
“No. Did you ever see any of those old mindshows where they tried to revive extinct species by using their remnants? They used blood preserved in ancient mosquitoes, but with how far modern tech has come, they figured out how to do it with bones. They’ve done it with a couple of species close to extinction or those who recently went extinct, but in theory it should have been easy with humans. ”
“But they’ve already cloned humans.”
“Species and things like twins, yes, but this was a way that pulled… I don’t remember all the neuroscience, but they could bring back the same person. Same vocal cords, bones, memories, all from bones.”
“But the bones didn’t play out for the body?”
She gestured to the homunculus. “Obviously, but if what I heard was true, they were able to recreate a portion of the brain, resurrecting memories from that being that once existed.”
“Hippo…” The homunculus didn’t have enough breath to finish its thought.
Naoma looked at me. I nodded. She fed the dripping tube into his mouth.
He spit it out.
“Ungrateful–” She stopped talking as he pointed to an open port in the side of his chest. She connected it and something within the machine turned to help the water flow.
The homunculus took a deep breath. “Hippocampus.”
Naoma snapped her fingers. “Yes! That was what they could recreate.”
“Arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and cholest-4-ene-3-one.” He took a second to breathe as color returned to his skin, though he was still just as pale as me. “Used to create a mind from remnants.”
“Why talk now?” I asked.
“All I ever wanted was pleasure.” Breath.
“I am a simple man. One who knows how to get what he needs. Everything I had has fallen into your hands. This,” he breathed as he glanced at the tube Naoma had connected, “is euphoric, orgasmic, and peaceful all in one. Without it, my existence is suffering.”
I scoffed.
He looked up at me.
“That simple? You do what you do just because you want to? All of this hedonism with your elite ‘friends’ is because you care more about your pleasure than anyone else’s?”
“How do you worship your God?”
I couldn’t recall saying anything to him about faith. “What does that matter?”
“You’re a Luxist aren’t you?”
I held my face still, not letting any reaction betray my confusion.
“The Elcaines failed, so you come to finish their job? I never had the pleasure of meeting them, but all of you Luxists are the same. You center your life on preserving a lost cause. This world will die just like the last.”
“I’m glad we’re being candid now,” I said. “Beacon?”