The God Codex

29. Mother

BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 29: Mother

The door opens into a dark room, and the chill of it hits my face; something akin to refrigeration. I shiver, not because I am cold, but because of what I see. As Shah steps into another room, light after fluorescent light flicks on with an audible clack-clack above our heads, revealing a vast room filled with what looks like cryogenic embryos. At least that's where my mind goes.

"This is the ARC. Here, we store all specimens of animal and plant species we could get our hands on before everything died off. Bioengineering, in particular designer genes and splicing technique, allowed us to save what you see here and — make you." Shah stands in front of a row of endless aisles and turns to us. "And look at you. So healthy, so real."

"You made me?" My tongue feels chalky against my palette. "You mean I am one of those?" I point at the small misty balls behind her, on one aisle labelled, 'Human Embryos and Gametes' — other aisles labelled with animals I've never seen, except in old movies and TV shows.

She grabs an embryo off the shelf and brings it over to me. "Well, you two started out as one of these, for sure, but you needed a womb."

She places the orb in my hand. It's the size of a tennis ball, and cold — freezing cold. "We had to make you, without knowing if we succeeded."

I turn the orb in my hand, unable to find words. My tongue feels heavy, my throat is clamping. My hands, despite the icy orb, feel sweaty. I turn it around until I read the label on it.

Viable donor egg: Dr Billie Quinn Shah

Viable donor sperm: Designer (proprietary of ShahAmour Industries)

"So when you said you're my mother?" I can't even bring myself to finish the question.

"You're mine, yes," she states as if answering a yes or no question.

"Why?" I look up. "Why make me? What can I possibly do to bring down CodeTech or the Hive?"

"I made a few of you, as failsafe. The question is, do you both work?" Shah smiles. She looks from me to Nate. "You're from two different batches, and the only two who survived it seems."

Shah laughs with joy, like were feats she never thought she'd achieve. "I opened up a fertility clinic as a cover. It gave me the perfect opportunity to switch out embryos for planting. The parents never knew."

Nate and I don't share her joy. She made us? Like test subjects? Viable eggs and designer sperm. Damn, designer babies just took a whole other meaning for me.

I hand her back her embryo — feels odd to think I was one of those. "I need air."

"Me too," Nate states beside me, "but I don't get it. How is Mia supposed to bring down the government?"

"Not the government, but the power they hold," Shah answers, placing the orb back on its shelf. "You will help us take down CodeTech. Both of you."

"But how?" I ask, feeling that uncomfortable queasiness in my stomach once more.

"Poison the Queen, poison the Hive, except we'll be liberating the bees," Captain Light speaks with a flourish, finally having time to chime in with his wit. Trust him to come up with that strategy.

"The Queen?" Nate asks. I can't even anymore. I'm still stuck on — I'm a freaking designer baby!

"It's code for the original program in the mainframe, from where they control almost all CodeTech in existence, hence the people with it in them. The mainframe is in the Hive's heart, the actual parliament building. You need to get in that building, get to the main server, and rewrite the mainframe, thus disabling their control over people, in theory. Provided your system can override the existing codex and replace it with the God Codex."