Chapter 9: Finding Out More About Our New Friends
Meanwhile in Downs, three more Linap had been defrosted. They had all been transferred to the laboratory medical centre. Yassmay was attending to them. They all appeared healthy. They all spoke the Sapien language. They also had no recollection of anything about themselves or why they had been frozen. Yassmay even showed them copies of the documents that were left in their chambers. None of them could understand the language, but one of them said it looked very familiar.
Yassmay took L1 Linap for a push around the Commercial Zone in her wheelchair to give her some fresh air.
‘I’m hoping the fresh air might give your memory a jog,’ said Yassmay as she pushed L1 Linap towards the giant statue of Hamlet.
‘Do you worship Sapes in this town?’ asked L1 Linap.
‘Oh no, that’s Hamlet,’ said Yassmay. ‘She’s a hero. She fought off a Sentray and saved the lives of two of the region’s most prominent leaders.’
‘Sentray!’ said L1 Linap in an energetic tone. ‘They’re a huge ancient, but extinct, species of creature.’
‘Wow, wait,’ said Yassmay as she moved in front of L1 Linap to face her. ‘You are starting to remember stuff.’
‘Yes, I am,’ said L1 Linap. ‘What you are saying makes no sense. Sentray are extinct, but if they weren’t, a Sape could not stand up to one.’
‘Hamlet is not your ordinary Sape, trust me,’ replied Yassmay. Yassmay noticed that L1 Linap was staring straight into her eyes.
‘Your eyes are blue,’ said L1 Linap, sounding a little confused.
‘Yes, so are yours,’ replied Yassmay. ‘That’s quite normal.’
L1 Linap’s eyes changed to brown.
‘Why did you do that?’ asked Yassmay.
‘What did I do?’ asked L1 Linap.
‘You changed your eye colour,’ replied Yassmay. ‘You must be Linap. You can shapeshift.’
‘Yeah, I’m Linap,’ replied L1 Linap. ‘You mean you’re not.’
‘Oh my,’ said Yassmay. ‘None of you have the sickness.’
‘I’m in a wheelchair,’ chuckled L1 Linap.
‘That’s an injury,’ replied Yassmay. ‘It’s different.’
‘If you’re not Linap, then what are you?’ asked L1 Linap.
‘I’m half Linap, half Sapien,’ replied Yassmay. ‘I’m also a clone.’
‘You sound truly remarkable,’ said L1 Linap. ‘You’re also really tall for someone so young.’
‘Thanks,’ said Yassmay as she rubbed L1 Linap’s red hair. ‘Do you fancy going fast?’
‘That sounds like fun,’ said L1 Linap as she smiled.
Yassmay pushed the wheelchair as fast as she could down the main street.
Meanwhile in Lake, Jennifer had been informed that Orcilla was travelling between locations, defrosting Linap. They had been told to stay put and not interfere with their missions. L6 Linap was feeling better, but he still could not remember who he was.
‘Are you sure he’s not on any database?’ Octavius asked Jennifer. ‘He looks so familiar. He’s definitely somebody.’
‘Nothing, sorry,’ replied Jennifer through Polly.
‘Of course I’m somebody,’ said L6 Linap in an arrogant tone. ‘I know I was born to lead, and I bet I did.’
‘I have a little something that might jog your memory,’ said Polly to L6 Linap.
‘Well, okay,’ said L6 Linap. ‘It’s killing me not knowing.’
Polly jabbed him hard in the arm with a large needle.
‘Damn,’ shouted L6 Linap, ‘that really hu….’ Then he collapsed on the floor.
‘Nice one,’ chuckled Octavius. ‘He was really annoying.’
‘I’m going to chip him,’ said Polly. ‘It might be the best way to extract information from him.’
‘Isn’t that a bit risky,’ said Octavius. ‘We don’t have any of Dr. Cortex’s compliance drug.’
‘We don’t need to control him at the moment,’ replied Polly. ‘We just need to extract information from him.’
‘Anyway, you could tone down his arrogance,’ chuckled Octavius. ‘He’s really annoying.’
‘No wonder you didn’t want any more of them,’ said Polly.
‘Yes, the Downs folk can handle the other ten,’ chuckled Octavius. ‘I’ll be happy when we can shut this one up for good.’
An hour later, Polly had opened up L6 Linap’s head.
‘His brain is mush,’ said Polly as she looked into his head. ‘This chip might not work as expected.’
‘There was something called blue juice,’ said Octavius. ‘He clearly went too heavy on it for too long.’
‘Not enough to kill him,’ said Polly as she inserted the chip. ‘If there is anything inside this mush, this’ll be the most effective way to extract it.’
‘Nasty stuff this surgery,’ said Octavius as he pulled a face. ‘It’s putting me off my dinner.’
A few hours after the surgery, Jennifer continued to monitor L6 Linap’s brain. Octavius looks at the outputs on her screen.
‘Nothing,’ chuckled Octavius. ‘This doesn’t surprise me at all. The chip is designed to assist and augment the thought process, not download memories. You captured memories from your other victims because their thought process drew on them in some way.’
‘I injected him with something else to stimulate dreams,’ replied Jennifer. ‘The chip might be able to access memories from them.’
‘Hahaha,’ chuckled Octavius as he shook his head. ‘Have fun. I think my pizza has cooked.’
In just under two weeks, Orcilla’s team had brought back seven frozen Linap. They were L1, L7, L5, L3, L9, L2, and L11. Orcilla and Denise retuned with Louis and Freddy after defrosting L11. She wanted to know what progress Yassmay had made with them.
When Orcilla and Denise climbed out of their flying vehicle, Yassmay rushed over to meet them.
‘It’s great to have you back,’ said Yassmay as she threw her arms around Orcilla. ‘You look great too. I was worried all the travelling and work would have made you ill.’
‘The medication made a difference,’ replied Orcilla. ‘I have the daunting thought of reducing it again.’
‘You know there is another way,’ said Yassmay in a softer tone.
‘How are the Linap?’ asked Orcilla abruptly as she walked towards the laboratory.
‘Healthwise, they are doing fine,’ said Yassmay as she walked with her. ‘They are struggling to get their memories back. L1 Linap is making progress. She is a real joy to talk with.’
‘Has your sister helped out at all?’ asked Orcilla as they walked into the laboratory lobby.
‘She comes in now and again,’ said Yassmay.
‘So the answer is no,’ sighed Orcilla.
‘In her defence, she has done some good work with technology,’ said Denise. ‘Those flying vehicles are faster than anything I’ve ever seen.’
‘I’m sorry, I’m a little snappy,’ said Orcilla as she turned to face Yassmay and Denise. ‘To feel like I am now, I needed to use a lot of medication. I know this has to end now, and I’ll be back to what I was like before in no time.’
‘We’re going to get answers,’ said Denise as she rubbed Orcilla’s arm.
‘Okay, I want to meet the Linap now,’ said Orcilla. ‘I want to know what I saved.’
Yassmay led Orcilla to the lounge, where the seven Linap were socialising.
‘I thought if they spent time together it might jog their memories,’ said Yassmay to Orcilla as they entered the lounge.
‘Hey guys, this is Orcilla,’ called out Yassmay to the group. ‘She brought you back to life.’
The Linap turned and waved in acknowledgement.
‘That one is big and all the others are small,’ said Orcilla as she pointed to L5 Linap.
‘He’s an interesting one,’ said Yassmay. ‘He’s younger than the others. He’s the only one with green eyes, and he knows how to play the keyboard.’
‘Thanks for saving us,’ said L11 Linap, who had unexpectedly appeared next to Orcilla. He was holding a packet of juice.
‘Hey, no problem,’ replied Orcilla as she turned to look at him.
‘There are some other things I need to tell you,’ said Yassmay. ‘I think we should talk in the laboratory room next door.’
Orcilla nodded.
They entered the other laboratory room together.
‘I have done some blood tests on them, and the results are interesting,’ said Yassmay as she closed the door. ‘These Linap are different from present-day Linap. Their genetics are different. They do not suffer from the same illnesses.’
‘They’re from a time before they inflicted themselves with a genetic mutation,’ replied Orcilla.
‘I think they are exactly from that time,’ said Yassmay. ‘The big one has present-day genetics, but he’s not sick.’
‘First generation new Linap,’ said Orcilla. ‘Apparently, it was only the second generation onwards that were sickly.’
‘They went underground because they did not want to be mutated,’ said Yassmay. ‘Maybe they knew what lied ahead. Therefore, they went into hiding.’
‘Interesting theory,’ replied Orcilla. ‘Makes sense given the timeframe.’
‘Most of them are close relatives,’ said Yassmay. ‘Exceptions are L5 and L11. L1 is a more distant relative.’
‘To have access to this technology, they must have been a very wealthy family,’ said Orcilla. The Alset Company built the generator powering their pod. I’m guessing these are the Alset family members.’
L1 and L7 are a little different from the others,’ added Yassmay. ‘L1 has blue eyes like us, and her blood indicates she has a degenerative disease similar to the Linap from our time. L7 has lighter eyes but are still brown. It appears his blood has been altered in some way through some sort of stimulant.’
‘L5 was wearing a uniform when we found him,’ said Orcilla. ‘I think it might have been an enforcer uniform from that time.’
‘That’s interesting,’ replied Yassmay. ‘I doubt he was an enforcer. I think it was likely a disguise to help the others escape.’
‘That sounds plausible,’ said Orcilla. ‘I want you to test the intelligence of all of them. I feel we are close to finding some answers, even if they can’t recall things themselves yet.’
Suddenly they heard a loud trumpeting sound from the town square.
‘That sounds like a happy bus horn,’ said Yassmay as her face lit up.
‘Yassme must have amplified the sound of the horn so that it could be heard by the whole region,’ remarked Orcilla.
‘Let’s go and welcome them home,’ said Yassmay.
The two of them walked out of the laboratory and headed to the town square.
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
Future of Social Media
Captain Hive is here
Remember to catch me on Spectrumecons, click link below.
