The second test only confirmed the results of the first.
Her blood, her half-Enorian blood, had reformed the serum! She had fought it so long, to the point of death. But though it had finally subdued her, the serum had incorporated her immune system defenses. Alessia's cells and the serum cells had transformed one another, creating the flawless cell replicators that Hinev had attempted to create but had not yet perfected, and the cells themselves had finally become sentient.
At last! Hinev felt a wave of triumph. He had at last broken the barrier to eternal life upon Seynorynael. Instead of returning the small vial of blood to her system, he emptied it into the indestructible vial containing the serum solution. He would inject himself again later. Now all he needed was an experimental group...
* * * * *
...Hinev returned from the Council Building only for a moment to retrieve Alessia's engine plans. Marankeil had discovered that Hinev was hiding them in his laboratory and requested that Hinev hurry to deliver his plans to the young Engineer Kiel working on the Firien project. Hinev had protested they were not his, that he was merely reviewing them; Marankeil didn’t care. He sent them to Kiel, using Hinev’s courier.
After the construction had been completed, Marankeil ordered Hinev to bring Kiel and several of his colleagues as candidates for the new explorer mission. As such, they would need to undergo some testing in the Federation Science Building to prepare them for the new voyage...
...after thirty-one successful candidates had undergone the metamorphosis, Hinev returned to the Federation Science Building to help Alessia. He did not want her to go through the learning process alone, as he had done...
* * * * *
Alessia returned to herself in an instant. Hinev’s expression was steady, without a trace of emotion.
“It’s too late for them, isn’t it?” Alessia said, shaking her head, but Hinev’s memories settled back into the deeper recesses of her mind, like a stubborn, clinging root that would not be pulled out, that would take as much memory with it as it possibly could if she tried to uproot it.
“Yes, I’m afraid it is.”
“How could you betray them all like that?” Alessia flung at him.
“You know the answer to that question now as well as I.”
“I suppose I do.” She said very quietly.
* * * * *
“Hinev, I need to know about my mother. Did she leave anything for me?”
“So you’re speaking to me again?” Hinev said from the other room, his voice approaching.
Two days had passed since the mindlink.
“Why not? I can’t hate you forever.” Alessia shrugged as he came in and sat beside her. She had been searching through a file on an electronic holo-notebook, then abruptly pushed it aside on the table.
“Actually you could, and I’d understand why,” Hinev said, an audible note of relief in his voice.
“I didn’t say I don’t still despise you on some level for what you’ve done, but hate you forever? I don’t think I can. Not with your memories and motives floating around in my head somewhere. But I asked you a question.”
“I’m sorry,” Hinev answered. “They didn’t tell me anything more about her.”
“I see.”
“I’ll find out if she left you anything. Alessia–”
“What?”
“I know it isn’t easy to suppress the other memories that remain after a mindlink. But please remember that you’ve got to be cautious. Don’t form a deep mindlink unless you have to. Learn to keep to scanning surface thoughts instead.”
“Why?”
“Because, let’s just say that if you don’t, you may find that the invaded mind can became the invader.”
“The invader?” Alessia shuddered.
Hinev nodded. “It feels so easy, so tempting, doesn’t it? To sink deeper into the memories of another person. But take care you don’t sink so deep that once immersed, you can’t get out. You’ll be left with the feeling that you actually are the other person.”
“That happened to you, didn’t it?”
His eyes flickered. “For a while I thought I was two different people, but thankfully, the split-personality symptoms wore off. I can’t say that I don’t have reservations about mindlinks now, though. And sometimes I wonder–”
“If it’s possible to cross the barrier and forget one's own self?”
“Yes.”
“Hinev–where are the others you tested the serum on?”
“You’ll know soon enough, Alessia.”
“You’re hiding something.”
“Yes, I am.”
Chapter Five
Alessia would have begged Hinev not to have infected the others with the serum if she had known beforehand that he planned on testing experimental subjects with his serum. But Hinev hadn’t told her. She had only learned of it in the mindlink, after it was too late to interfere.
Hinev was soon busy, had new subjects to monitor; he left his laboratory in The Federation Science Building for some time.
And, Alessia had at last been released from her duties at The Federation Science Building as well—that was what her official transfer notice said. Taken from her home, they had left her to Hinev and the instructors at the scientific center for years. She had no longer had any desire to leave, but those in charge of her fate didn’t care about this.
The Elder Council had more plans for her than she would ever know. Alessia was soon sent to a cadet training center under the command of Major Ungarn in central Ariyalsynai, to be trained as Bilka had promised years before. She’d been taken from Hinev, her surrogate father, and abandoned in a new world that had no knowledge of the creature she had recently become.
Alessia stormed though the halls like a dark cloud when the Elder Ornenkai ran into her on her way back to her new quarters.
"Alessia!" he called out to her in the corridor. She turned at the sound of the synthesized voice, suddenly suspicious. "Hinev asked that I look in and see that you have adjusted. I trust things are well?" Ornenkai asked, hesitating.
"No cause for any concern," she said angrily, then relented, thinking fondly of Hinev, despite what he had done. "But why would an Elder come to this center for Hinev’s assistant?" she asked and narrowed her eyes. Though she knew why, knew that she was immortal, and that someone was bound to find out, sooner or later.
"Hmmm. You don't realize my admiration for him.” Ornenkai said, with perhaps a trace of feeling. She couldn’t really tell with the mechanized units, though maybe she didn’t want to be bothered trying. “And he has accomplished for us–more than I could believe.” Ornenkai continued. “But it is not that difficult to pull myself away from the main Terminus. There is too much going on in the world to exclude myself from it. I will concede that it is a pain to transfer my thoughts into the mobile unit–but the time may come when I might be free to come and go as I once did," he added cryptically.
Alessia recalled Hinev's memories in that moment, and the secret cloning and serum group experiments Hinev had planned and executed for the Elder's benefit.
“Alessia?” He asked. “I see I’ve upset you. I didn’t mean–”
“It’s all right,” she said acerbically, hoping with all her heart that all of the serum tests might fail. The Elders’ power had taken her from her mother, and had caused Nerena's death. As soon as she was in a position to end their inhuman reign, she knew she wouldn’t hesitate doing it for a moment.
She knew she had to be careful around Ornenkai, lest she betray any of Hinev’s secrets.
“I have to go,” Alessia said, and left him as soon as she could.
* * * * *
Ungarn had once analyzed cadet Alessia Valeria Enassa with eyes accustomed to harshly criticizing, but now her commanding officer praised her to anyone who wou
ld listen. He knew she was a Zadúmchov but had taken her father’s name Enassa for training, but he didn’t tell anyone else of what he knew privately that Alessia had chosen not to reveal.
Of course Ungarn did not tell her any of his private thoughts, but Alessia knew what he thought of her.
Her ambition knew no limits, but it wasn’t a conceited ambition, an ambition bent on self-glory. She had always had a desire to achieve the impossible simply to prove that nothing was.
She took no pleasure out of simple achievements, which now included the thousands of things the metamorphosis had made possible. There was no knowledge she could not secure if she wanted it, nothing she couldn’t move telekinetically by force of will, no one she couldn’t force into submission, but forcing anything or anyone to do something against its own nature was something that she intended never to do, because it was something that could give her no satisfaction.
Alessia never abused her powers if she could help it. She cared only for those things that a voluntary will offered her, without being prompted in any way. Even so, it was hard not to use the ability of her telepathic power, which required so little effort. Ungarn’s mind was open to her; he had not the means to protect himself. He had been skeptical of her talent at first because it was his nature and because she had come to him later than she ought, but time and again she proved herself far superior to any of his other trainees.
Her abilities were miraculous! Ungarn thought. He didn’t know that they were also unnatural. He had to admit to himself that cadet Enassa had surprised him more than he thought possible. It had been years since he had been so proud of one of his cadets. After only a few short months in pilot training, favorable circumstances, a gap in the ranks, and a few well-timed successful errands compelled him to place her among the Martial Scientific Force's officers.
Ungarn was pleased to promote Alessia Valeria Enassa and fully certain of her capabilities; his only concern remained her apparent youth and inexperience, but his enthusiasm won out over reservations. Alessia could handle whatever he gave her to do, of that Ungarn was certain.
Cadet Enassa was soon promoted to the lowest rank in the Martial Scientific Force, with the stipulation that she continue her training for another year before active service. During that time, she was to hone her engineering skills, to study and memorize all of the Federation starship designs and analyze them for flaws. Her own starship designs would be judged by the Martial Scientific Force's established engineers.
However, Alessia’s career path soon veered into another area. Perhaps it was her own early upbringing near Lake Firien, augmented by the ambition and obsessive search she had witnessed through Hinev's eyes. Her telepathic power had indeed made it easy to gain rapid, comprehensive expertise, though she still felt a taste of guilt about using her powers to gather information that way. Still, she couldn’t help but excel with her telepathically-gained knowledge.
For whatever the reason, Alessia had taken an interest in biology and bio-chemistry, the area of knowledge that had forever altered her own life, and in time, she earned herself a position on the research team of scientists as a bio-specialist at the Martial Scientific Force's Lab Center.
During her last year of training, though, the strange headaches that she had begun to experience worsened, waking her from any attempt at sleep. Hinev had said it was no longer possible for her to feel pain, and in truth, the oppressive weight on her mind was in fact unlike any sensation she had ever known. She awoke writhing and howling like a wounded animal, her head throbbing with blinding, crushing pressure.
She hadn’t cried or felt such pain to such an extent except for the metamorphosis–not ever, not even in the days shortly after being taken from her mother, not when she was taken from Hinev. Not even when she broke her leg in physical training years ago, or when she was burned in the fire in Hinev’s lab. Not even when she went to bed with muscles aching so much from overwork and exhaustion that she couldn’t sleep through the night. She had felt pain before, normal pain, pain she could be indifferent to, but nothing like this. It was true all of her external scars were gone, thanks to the power of Hinev’s serum.
Yet she was screaming now, despite her immortality, and yes, there was pain!
Maybe Hinev could no longer feel any pain, but she certainly did, albeit briefly, now. The first thing she decided to do was to forego sleeping. Hinev's serum had taken away the necessity almost entirely, so why bother with sleep or dreaming any more? She wouldn’t let a nightmare have any power over her!
The headaches diminished but never completely disappeared. And with them came brief lapses in memory. She wondered if Hinev's serum had indeed been imperfect, if there was a price she would pay for unsought immortality.
* * * * *
In three years, Alessia had become a lieutenant in the Martial Scientific Force. After her second year, she had asked permission to be transferred away from central Ariyalsynai, but Ungarn made it clear that such a removal was out of his hands. Someone above him was pulling the strings that kept her there.
Alessia had not seen Hinev since the day she left the Federation Science Building, but on occasion she had another visitor. A year after her caustic encounter with the Elder Ornenkai, he returned to visit her, "observe" her progress as he called it, to deliver news of Hinev to his former pupil.
Alessia tolerated Ornenkai and talked to him as she thought that perhaps Hinev might telepathically read through Ornenkai what she did and thought. Perhaps Hinev would then know that she wished to be returned to the Science Center at the Federation Science Building and join him in his experiments. But Ornenkai never returned with news of her mentor. She had not even a guarantee that Ornenkai ever saw Hinev but had to believe that Ornenkai did. She tried to read Ornenkai’s mechanized mindwaves, but the mechanized Elders' minds were safe from her telepathy.
In the past year, there had been excited rumors that the explorer mission neared the departure time of its maiden voyage. A starship selected for the journey approached completion far away beyond the weather-safe ring in the Firien province. And its crew, experienced officers of the Martial Scientific Force, had been training, it was said, somewhere in Ariyalsynai.
Ornenkai brought word one afternoon that the explorers were being sent out to Lake Firien to complete their training before the explorer mission could be launched. Ornenkai answered Alessia's questions about them freely, hoping to please her. But it seemed to her that he was somewhat despondent, as if a great hope of his, a dream he had cherished, had been dashed.
She asked him what was wrong, only out of a casual interest, but he appeared gratified by her concern.
"Too many things that I will not burden you with, my dear," he responded, and tried to sigh. "Disappointments mount like the fallen leaves, but a strong wind sweeps them all away," he added as quietly as a machine could, mumbling an age-old saying.
"What brings you here–do you leave to meet with Hinev?" she asked.
"No–I have seen the last of him for quite some time. But–I had to visit you one more time."
"Are you leaving for a Federation planet?" she asked.
"No. But we may be parted soon. You cannot stay here forever, and I–I am going to be indisposed for a while. Involved in–you might call it an experiment. And now you must forgive me, but I shall take leave of you. I have to speak with Ungarn, and he is not an easy one to locate."
As Alessia watched the mechanized Elder leave, she almost relented in her resentment of him, but in her heart she could never forgive the Elders for what they had let happen to her.
She brought her fingers to her temples, suddenly inclined to massage them as she felt a pressure headache approaching. But this one was slight, and passed in moments. She remembered what Ornenkai had said about Hinev and that his new explorer team were indeed nearby in Ariyalsynai.
Closing her eye
s, she allowed her consciousness to extend beyond the walls, beyond the building, across space in a great sphere until she found the agonized mind calling to her.
She hurried from the building, making certain that she was not seen. For the first time in years, she slipped beyond the gateway unaccompanied, into the bustling commercial center of Ariyalsynai. In the distance she could see the Elders' Building and adjoining arboretum museum, rising high above the other white towers of the city. Turning her back on them, she disappeared into the multitudes of civilians.
* * * * *
She found Hinev in his laboratory in the Federation Science Building.
"Alessia," he stammered, "what are you doing here?" He appeared surprised but not displeased that she had come.
"I sensed something was wrong–just after Ornenkai left," she stopped, watching his expression change to bitterness.
"He came to see you?"
"Yes, but–"
"When?"
"Today, not long before I left to see you."
"Yes, I thought that he might." Hinev sighed. Alessia looked at him expectantly. "The planned transplantation–the transferal failed."
"When?" She asked, but Hinev shook his head.
"Recently. But some time ago, I realized it could not be done–at least not as planned. Ornenkai left you, my dear, to begin a transplantation into an imperfect clone–but the process of implanting information takes many months, even years after the clone human's maturation. No doubt he thought he would never see you again. Tell me, did he sound distracted, unhappy?"
"Yes–if any of them can feel anything." She conceded.
"Hmmm." Hinev nodded thoughtfully.
"You mean the serum could not be implemented into their genetic copies?" Alessia asked, dubious.
"I mean once I had grown the new clones using Marankeil and the other ancient Elder's genetic material, the original cloned minds, though fresh and unadorned with memories, refused to be eradicated by the Elders' memory bank. I decided to eliminate some brain functions in a few of them, to see if they could absorb some of the Elder's thoughts and memories, and it was possible, but I noticed strange motor reactions–as though the bodies themselves rejected the artificial memories, even those from the source of their genetic material.