Copper Rain

Copper Rain Part 11

The Present

I'm still down on my knees, facing Titus' image like an ancestor worshipping a craven deity. I now know that I've been complicit in the whole scheme from the get go. The bone tanks were a way to recommission me, to smear away the sins of the past and slink me back into the ranks of the HeXtract trusted and faithful. Not only was my physiology altered, but the boffins in the Xyon City tanks had run a chromosomal rework and altered me at a fundamental level. I was no longer the man my mothers created.

"Christ, Zoie," I said. "Double tanking. That was a fucking risk."

"You needed my DNA to change."

"But how did you know it'd work?"

Zoie nodded at the screen. "Titus figured it out. Genetically you and I were close."

"No way."

"Yes way. Different mothers, but the same stock of male chromosomes."

"Fucking what?"

"She's right," interrupted Titus. "HeXtract has used various combinations of the same batch of male genetic stock for your most recent generation."

"That's some dodgy shit."

"Yes and no. It's their attempt to reintroduce certain strands back into the human genome."

"So what the fuck does that mean?"

"After the Gene Wars the Houses agreed there was to be no more direct manipulation of the human genome."

"Hell yeah, they pretty much fucked us over as a species."

"HeXtract tries to get around this through plain and simple breeding."

"So what's this to do with me?"

I recall a lot of the stuff that had been subsumed in my mind, but some of the mission details were sketchy. All I remembered is that I had to hide.

"We hit Xyon City, threw you and Zoie into the same tank, switched out your Moms' DNA strands and switch in Zoie's mitochondrial mix and there you have it. You are now effectively her genetic brother."

A memory twigged. Zoie's brother had also been recruited by HeXtract, he was a couple of intakes before me.

"What happened to him?" I ask.

Zoie shrugs. "Got recruited by HeXtract, just like you. Did his time in service. Came back to Heladon, converted to some freaky religion and disappeared off to a new terraform somewhere."

"But the records . . ."

"He went out dark, on some out-of-system hopper. Couldn't afford regular passage."

"And I kept his records active back home," adds Titus. "Well sort of me."

"How long have you been planning this shit?"

Titus shakes his head. "You've got to remember that HeXtract were gunning for our asses, and you were in the crosshairs."

"But why didn't they take out you and the others. They must've known."

"For a long time I waited for the other boot to drop."

"What boot?"

"Ines, Dali and I were expunged from the records."

"What records?"

"HeXtract records. We didn't exist, still don't. You were the only one that officially existed."

"HeXtract wiped you?"

"Not HeXtract. Something else. It pretends to be human, but reads as an AI."