Remembrance

Chapter 3 - Jack

I raise an eyebrow. "But you said—"

He nods. "I know. And it's true. Your brains are especially complicated, and the surgeries did cause irreversible damage. I still may be able to improve your memories." He holds up a finger. "Not fix. Improve."

Improve my memories? I've never even thought about repairing them. That definitely didn't seem possible. Hell, I'm not even sure I want more memories. The few I've already got are practically driving me insane. Another thought pushes into my mind. The Girl. Maybe I'll finally have some goddy idea of who she is. Assuming I really want to know. 

I want to say something, but my mouth freezes in surprise. I'm barely able to push any words off my tongue. Somehow, I manage to utter a single word. "How?" I ask.

A deep look of regret passes over Akhiro's face. "Much of the technology they implanted in your minds was of my design. It took many months, but I always recognize my work. And if I helped to create it, I know how to repair the damage it's caused." 

April tilts her head to the side. "Wait. I'm confused. What do you mean?" 

Akhiro furrows his eyebrows and slowly nods, realizing I haven't told April. What can I say? His past belongs to him—it's not mine to share. 

"I wasn't always a doctor, April, as I am now," Akhiro speaks slowly and deliberately—talking like someone about to deliver bad news. "I was once a genetic scientist. One of the first to work on the Orsus program, far before Jack's time."

April seems to take that information well—far better than I did. She doesn't even question it. "And you messed with their brains?" She quietly asks.  

He shakes his head. "Yes—but not only. At first we were interested in creating a type of synthetic construct that might replicate life. So, I built one. The first artificial organism." A faraway look appears on his face. "To them he was just another machine—but he was so much more. My first creation." Akhiro closes his eyes. I recognize his expression. It's the same look I get when the Girl invades my mind. He's trying to wipe away his old memories. 

He glances back at April. "It didn't matter. He was both too human and not human enough. I had made him . . . unsettling. They didn't trust my work." 

"Then we switched to people." He gestures at me and Luke, as if to highlight his point. "I made progress at a horrifying speed." 

He pauses, carefully choosing his words. "After several years, we managed to build a living human, entirely from scratch. I personally constructed it." 

My eyes widen, and it takes me a second to understand what he's saying. Akhiro didn't include that detail when we first met him, after escaping Orsus. I didn't even know it was possible to just. . . create someone.   

But it means—

I glance at Luke, and his shock seems to mirror mine. We were all taken from parents. They donated us, for the glory and pride of the Union. That's what we were always told. Not a single person ever questioned it. But it wasn't true? One of us was created in some test-tube? 

"What was its name?" Luke asks. "The person you made, I mean?" 

Akhiro shakes his head. "They were always very careful. I was never told a name. And after I left, I was told even less."  

A feeling of shock rises up in my stomach, seizing up my throat. 

Akhiro must understand what I'm thinking, because he moves and places a gentle hand on my shoulder. "No, Jack. It's not you—your parents are real. Nor Luke or Markus. I would recognize my own work if I were ever to see it." He pauses. "But there is still some of me in you."