tmp0 (8 page)

“–
tit
quan balla...”

She found her lips
moving along, mouthing the words that she had forgotten years and
years ago. Although the song sounded far away, she was able to
whisper the chorus along with the girls.

“
...balla,
balla, balla...”

Then Chal noticed
that the sound was diminishing. There was a rumble in the air,
something that seemed to make the whole world shiver with sound. It
was a noise that was out of the normal range of human hearing, but
Chal felt her body shiver as the vibrations hit her body. It was a
strain now to hear the girls, who were still sitting, playing.

Under her feet she
felt the ground tremble, and she bent to the ground to listen. The
rumbling grew louder, and she was scared for the girls.

Go. Run.

She opened her mouth
to call to them, but the words would not come to her tongue. Her ear
was pressed to the dry surface of the playa floor, and dust stained
her cheek, but she could not pull away.

Go!

There was a slow
murmur underfoot. The secrets hidden underneath the earth were being
dug up and overturned, and the earth did not like this. As Chal
listened, she felt the rumbling begin to shake her cheek and her
palms, and the mesh fence in front of her quivered so hard that its
chain links rattled like so many wind chimes.

Chal thought of the
Robert Frost poem her fifth-grade teacher had read to the class. It
was one of the first assignments she had been given after they had
immigrated to the United States, and she had loved the lyrical
quality of the words that she had just begun to understand:

Something there
is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the
frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the
upper boulders in the sun

The ground rumbled
and shook, and still Chal’s ear was glued to the ground. She
reached out her hand toward the girls, and saw her younger self stand
up and look out, away, toward the mountains.

RUN!

She screamed but
there was no sound. Between the mountains, miles away, she saw the
earth begin to crack, the chasms breaking their way through the crust
of the desert faster and faster. The black cracks were like lightning
across the playa floor, and Chal saw the ground split and crumble,
coming closer to the girls.

No!

She saw the earth
give way under the girls, and her heart was wrenched inside of her
body as she strained to rescue them but could not move. There was no
chance. They fell in a second and when Chal blinked she found that
they had disappeared from view. The floor under them was gone and
then they were gone, and there was nothing but a black pit remaining.
Her face felt hot and there was a roaring in her ears, the sound of
earth cracking and crumbling.

When the ground
split underneath her, she felt her fingers scrabbling at the sand,
but then she was falling, falling, deep into the darkness and the
earth’s core. Falling–

***

“Dr.
Davidson?”

Chal woke with a
start, her fingers clutching the blanket. She blinked in the bright
light. Standing in the doorway was a young lab assistant, his long
blond hair greasy but smoothed back into a ponytail. The hair of a
researcher who didn’t care when he got his next haircut. His
face was chubby with baby fat that he hadn’t yet lost, and Chal
got the distinct impression that he was suppressing a smile.

“Dr.
Davidson?”

“Yes?”
she said.

“Hi there,”
the lab assistant said, and his face broke out into the hidden smile
Chal had seen. Although he was not handsome by any stretch of the
imagination, when he grinned his face looked so friendly that Chal
felt they were already intimate. “My name’s Evan. It’s
an honor to work with you.” He took two steps towards her and
tripped, catching himself on the cot and extending his hand eagerly
for a handshake.

“Mmmhhmm,”
Chal mumbled, blinking as she shook his hand.

“I’m
sorry to wake you, but they’re almost ready to start.”

“Start?”
Chal said, disoriented. Her heart was still pounding from the terror
of her dream.

“To wake up
the prototype,” Evan said.

Chal rubbed her eyes
and ran her hand through her hair. A surge of excitement ran through
her, clearing her mind almost immediately.

“Yes, of
course,” she said, standing up. “Let’s go.”

“First I’ll
need to spray you down with disinfectant,” he said.

“I’ve
already been in the lab,” Chal said, trying not to sound as
irritated as she felt. He was so good-natured that she felt bad about
her irritation. “I’m decontaminated.”

“I’m
sorry, Dr. Davidson,” Evan said, with a look of sympathy.
“Anyone in contact with a prototype must be disinfected first,
just to eliminate any remaining trace bacteria. Everyone down here
has already undergone full decontamination. I, ah, ahem–”
He motioned for her to take off her clothes, obviously embarrassed.

Chal unbuttoned her
top, frowning.

“Why do I need
to be disinfected?” Chal asked. “I’m not going to
be working directly with the prototype.”

Evan cocked his
head. “I thought you were going to oversee the prototype’s
awakening.”

Chal, not sure what
to make of this, shrugged and complied. Evan looked down at his feet,
then at the wall, trying not to let his eyes wander as Chal stepped
out of her suit.

“I, um, I need
you to be...” His words trailed off as he turned bright red.

“Oh. Sure.”
Chal unhooked her bra and slipped out of her undergarments readily.
It was cute how embarrassed he was, and how hard he tried to maintain
a professional demeanor while she stripped naked.

He began to spray
her, beginning with her fingertips. The spray was white and chilly,
and as the nozzle moved across her body, goosebumps stood out on her
skin. Then the spray sputtered and stopped.

“Whoops, I
must have forgotten to refill it yesterday,” Evan said,
reaching down to the spraycan. He smacked himself on the forehead
with one chubby hand. “Blond moment!” He looked up at
Chal, realizing too late what he had said. “I mean, not to say
that blonds are dumb, I just–”

Chal waved one hand
dismissively. “Not at all. I’m used to blonde jokes.”

In fact, Chal had
been one of the few blonde students at her preschool in Catalonia.
Even after she moved to America, most of the families that she knew
were dark-haired. At family reunions she was always the odd one out,
having taken after her father in only this one regard. Her mother had
brushed her hair every night, and she realized later that this act of
love had been one also of nostalgia for her late father. Her sister
had gotten her mother’s dark hair, but Chal had always been
different.

“But Dr.
Fielding is the one running this,” Chal said. “Isn’t
he overseeing the session?” She felt oddly comfortable talking
with the lab assistant. He seemed utterly genuine, and perhaps it was
the hero worship that made her feel comfortable admitting that she
had no idea what was going on. She closed her mouth and her eyes as
he moved the stream up and over her face. The cold mist burned her
eyes slightly but then dissipated.

“It sounded
like you were going to be the one to do it,” Evan said. “That’s
what Dr. Fielding told us.” He finished spraying Chal’s
feet.

“He did?”
Chal said. “But I–” She stopped in mid-sentence,
aware that the lab assistant was staring at her in a bright blush.
She realized that she was still naked and that he had already
finished with the disinfectant. Bending down, she pulled her clothes
back on over her lean body.

“I didn’t
think I would be the first to see him awaken,” Chal said,
trying to cover up her confusion. “In the same room, I mean.”

“Oh, yes,”
Evan said. His cheeks wobbled enthusiastically as he nodded. “You’re
definitely first. It’s protocol, they said.”

“Right,”
Chal said, finishing the last button and standing up in front of the
lab assistant. “Protocol.”

Protocol? she
thought. This wasn’t protocol. There wasn’t any protocol
for this.

This was blind
insanity.

CHAPTER SEVEN

There were a
half-dozen people milling around the lab when they arrived.
Immediately Evan’s attitude changed. The dumb admiration that
Chal had come to expect from younger scientists was gone from his
face, replaced by an attitude of confidence. He went over to the
other assistants and began to quiz them about the changes they had
made.

Chal realized that
despite his youth he was quite competent, for everything in the main
lab was done up to her specifications. One technician was adjusting
the camera, and another was finishing the padding on the walls. Two
IV lines were hooked up to the central sensory deprivation tank, one
dripping green liquid, one red.

“The colors
are added just to make sure the right line is supplied,” Evan
said, reading her gaze. “Green is go, red is stop.”

“The military
doesn’t think we can read labels?” Chal said, moving past
the tank.

“Guess they’re
not leaving anything to chance,” Evan said.

There was a double
layer of fabric swathing on top of the pads to mute any extraneous
sound, a nice touch that Chal appreciated although she hadn’t
asked for it. Evan wasn’t just a bumbling lab assistant, after
all.

“This is
good,” Chal said. She noticed that Evan’s face lit up at
the weak praise.

Dr. Fielding was
standing next to Lieutenant Johnner on the other side of the room,
both looking intensely displeased. When Lieutenant Johnner saw her,
though, his face brightened just as Evan’s had. It was a look
Chal was accustomed to, and whether it was because she was going to
question the prototype or because of another, more unprofessional
reason, she declined to return his gaze. There was already too much
confusion around the lab for her to create any more problems.

Chal didn’t
wait for anyone to brief her. After double checking the equipment,
she walked across the room toward the men.

“I’m
going to be the one in the room with the prototype?” Chal said.
Her question was directed toward Lieutenant Johnner. Now that she
knew he was the real one in charge, it didn’t matter what Dr.
Fielding thought. If she never talked with him again, it would be too
soon.

“I must
disagree with Lieutenant Johnner’s decision,” Dr.
Fielding said, before Johnner could answer.

“It was not my
decision,” Johnner said coldly. “It was part of the
protocol associated with Project Paragon.”

“When did we
start following this protocol?” Fielding asked, sarcastic. His
voice was too loud, and two technicians looked over at them.

“After the
first two prototypes were needlessly destroyed.” Johnner looked
pissed, and Fielding was silent for a moment. Chal saw a look of pure
hatred cross his face and disappear into cold nothingness.

“We’ll
debrief after the awakening,” Chal said, hoping to defuse the
argument. “This shouldn’t be interesting at all, anyway,
if we do it right. It’s just getting him acclimated to his
surroundings. I’ll just be watching to make sure nothing goes
wrong.”

“And what
about the questioning?” Fielding said pointedly.

“We’ll
talk about it later,” Chal said. “Right now I need to get
ready.”

“Fine,”
Fielding said, and went over to the table where the assistants were
messing around with the recording equipment. It didn’t matter
whether or not he thought it was fine, Chal thought. She wanted to
get started. It would have been better if they had let her prepare,
if they had given her time.

“How long do
we have before we need to start?” she asked.

“Ten, fifteen
minutes,” Johnner said. “We could wait longer if you
absolutely have to, but the sooner the better, of course.” He
was confident in his decisions, and Chal wondered again whether he
knew more than he let on about the experiment. He didn’t seem
nervous about wresting control away from Fielding, and she felt that
someone who was just a military man wouldn’t want to be held
responsible for scientific work.

“Of course,”
Chal said. “I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.” Her
heart was beating faster, now that she realized that it was actually
happening. This was it.

“Let me know
if you need anything beforehand,” Johnner said. Chal nodded,
her mind already racing ahead to what she was going to have to do.
She had done this experiment hundreds of times before, but of course
those were animals. This was a human.

“Does he have
a name?” Chal asked.

Evan spoke up. “We
call him Alan.”

“Alan?”
Chal asked.

“It’s
short for aluminium artificial neuronetwork,” he said. “Because
of the aluminum core, that’s the new part of this prototype.
Al-AN.”

“ Alan,”
Chal repeated. “I like the sound of that.”

“Better than
the last prototype core, anyway,” Evan said. “You can’t
make a name out of Ytterbium.” He chuckled, his cheeks rounded
in laughter, and Chal chuckled with him.

She turned her
attention to the awakening. She would have to handle this carefully,
she knew. The first time the prototype awoke would only last for a
few minutes. Any more than that and there would be too many stimuli
to keep in memory: it would overwhelm. She tried to remember exactly
what the doctors in Germany had done with their apes. There were many
ways to soothe animals, and she hoped that they would also work to
soothe a human.

Because if this one
malfunctioned, Chal might never get a chance to work with a
human-substrate prototype again. Therefore, it couldn’t
malfunction. It just couldn’t.

Chal wouldn’t
let it.

***

The lights were
turned off in the main lab, leaving Chal alone under a soft red glow
with the unconscious prototype. They had wheeled him in with little
ceremony and moved him quickly to the sensory-deprivation tank they
had rigged up. It was an automated system that would awaken the
prototype and then sedate him again after only a few minutes. Chal
had assured everyone that this would be plenty of time for the first
session with the prototype. She didn’t want to overstimulate
him.