Tardigrade Project

Tardigrade Project: Second Chance

Ava plunged into the bed a little more to enjoy the clean white linens. She tried to remember the last time she slept on something so soft. What was this beautiful smell that came to her nose? Did the thing called cleaning smell like that?

Ava felt safe within the four sterile walls she was in. A device beside her was making quiet, rhythmic sounds, as if it didn’t want to disturb her, reminding Ava that she was healthy. Examining the sharp lines of the white and dark blue room, Ava recalled the papers standing by her bedside. Lots of papers lined up and waiting to be signed. She couldn’t help wondering who had arranged them so neatly. Just then she heard her mother’s voice in her mind.

-Ava, please don’t do this, my dear. Listen to me. The purpose of these brutal technocrats is clear. They want to destroy us. Don’t let them fool you. Are you not aware that they are experimenting on us? Can’t you see what they’re aiming for? They want to complete what nature left unfinished. The White Coats have not helped this world at all. They…

The voice in her mind gradually faded away. Her mother’s words were like the common voice of all Resurrectionists. In their words, the world order after the Reset had changed and the survivors had to endure to the natural and survive. But conditions made the situation difficult. The sun was hotter, and the water was less than before. The soil was unproductive and the air suffocating. Those who did not die in the Reset came face to face with death due to the harsh natural conditions and the already decreasing population started to disappear gradually. Nevertheless, the Resurrections justified Mother Nature’s anger, fully submit to what had happened to them. They argued that such Resets occurred frequently throughout history and were a part of the cycle of the universe. For them, such Apocalypses were very important as they warned people and gave them a second chance to understand their mistakes. Of course, this was their theory. Over time, the Resurrectionists returned to primitive life and believed they would rewrite history. They thought that the world did not exist in a day and that all these difficult conditions would end one day. On the other hand, there were those who did not live in extremes as well as the Resurrectionists. Those who took advantage of everything that could be used in the dilapidated houses and developed their own primitive technologies, did not see what was happening as a Reset. But the survival of this minority group did not concern the Resurrectionists. They saw every person who disagreed with them spiritually rotten. On the other hand, scientists who survived the Apocalypse or Reset (whatever you want to say now) have tried to find a solution to this miserable life on earth. They started the Tardigrade Project with recovered and newly produced technological tools. They repaired less damaged buildings and created their own laboratories. Of course, this has not been an easy process. Despite generations of quarrels, looting, strife and deaths, scientists have managed to protect and improve their buildings and technologies.

The hospital where Ava was located was once a laboratory. While one segment of the world lived a primitive life in the dust, another segment was producing new technologies for the future of humanity in high-tech buildings, Ava did not know whether it angered or surprised her. As the scientists or his mother put it, the White Coats established this hospital for the Tardigrade Project. The aim of the project was to take new “human babies” by caesarean section before leaving their mother’s womb and to adapt to life under the sea by changing their genetics. It was not difficult for the human infant, living in liquid in their mother’s womb, to adapt to underwater life. And the only place that suffered the least damage and had the promise of life after the Reset was the oceans. Even though they were contaminated over time, it was better than life on Earth because the oceans had a higher capacity to clean themselves. Thanks to the project, population control was achieved with an eighty percent reduction in infant deaths from effects such as air pollution, malnutrition or radiation. But the Resurrectionists strongly opposed genetically modifying people. They said that people who adapted to life under the sea were no different from animals, and above all, it was a crime to separate a mother from her baby. This project was, for them, a terrible experiment on humans. For them, human existence could not be reduced to a simple form of marine creature. This project was considered an insult to the evolution. Despite all the rhetoric, pressure, and propaganda of the Resurrectionists, most mothers allowed their babies to Attunement. These babies were taken from the mother’s womb and placed in liquid-filled tanks before their lungs filled with air, without taking their first breath. In order for their bones not to harden, the gravity rate in these tanks was adjusted, their lungs were changed, and their skins were adapted for swimming. Ava didn’t know more about this process, which she wouldn’t have if she had. All she knew was that human babies kept in tanks were released into the ocean at the end of a year and mothers had the opportunity to say goodbye that day. Because that was the only thing that concerned her. Most of the mothers were bypassing this farewell process. They didn’t want to see modified versions of their babies. Because most of them made this decision out of necessity. To give your kids a second life chance.