0.4 A Meeting of Minds - Part 6
“You’re saying she’s some kind of super-soldier?”
“An artificial Evolved my man! The first of her kind!”
“But that’s impossible. Adding ‘Evolved’ genes to an ‘normal’ subject usually ends up destroying the subject.”
“Because Evolved powers are not the result of a single gene or even a single chromosome. There’s complex gene interactions that even I cannot replicate reliably.”
“So she’s a…”
“Yes, artificially grown. Genetically engineered from birth.”
“But, the first Evolved began appearing five years ago, so she would have to be less than five years old?!”
“For the first, we still cannot figure out why people began developing powers five years ago, but given the complex nature of the genetics involved, as well has the spread among the population..."
“It was estimated that some ‘event’ took place somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, of which we could not detect any remnants.”
“So, if we eliminate the possibility that the same event that created all the Evolveds in our world, also created Victory Girl, we can then work from the point that she was indeed ‘developed’ in a Lab. After all, there is much you do not know about accelerated growth. Back when I was still an ‘acceptable member of society’, I had achieved stable, controlled accelerated growth. Two years for every one year. It was of course, never published because it was one of the things deemed unethical. They brand me the devil for that. The shortsighted fools! Today, I can go up to five years for a year. But I have only ever managed it with one subject who survived the process all the way to the end.”
“So we…”
“Not only have an artificial Evolved, we also have one accelerated to adulthood.”
The Fixer who was sitting up straight for this whole discourse finally sat back. All the points were right in front of him, but he had never bothered to connect them because of how improbable it all sounded. And yet, with the new bits of information, the puzzle seemed to fit better than before.
“So… it finally makes sense. How some random person, off the street secured a meeting with the President and a few days later, E-Division was formed. With her at its helm no less.”
“So you finally see,” said Dr Diablo as he took a well deserved sip from his tea. Over time, this little story had become his litmus test. On the surface, it was perfectly at home in all the thousands of odd conspiracy theories that floated on the internet about the enigma that was Victory Girl. Only those who had some understanding of the nature of how the Evolved and the system worked, knew just how plausible the whole hypothesis was.
“So she’s some kind of government-sanction artificially bred Evolved supersoldier? Where would the base genetic material come from? We still can’t create a human, much less an Evolved from scratch. And more importantly, are there more like her?”
“Here’s the interesting part. As soon as I saw what she did that fateful night, I invested resources but failed to identify her. When I heard she was in contact with the President, I roped in certain members from a Brain Trust run a facial recognition on her and it turned up negative in all databases. That is, until one of the more… interesting members, dug up a deleted picture, that had not yet been cleared from their cache. It was purged as soon as they detected the intrusion, but by then, our little genius had the file.”
On the screen was a young lady who looked exactly like Victory Girl, except, the picture was of a driving licence from 2010. Of a 17-year-old Helena Taylor.
“This young lady died in 2011. Accidental drowning in a terrible storm at sea. Parents buried her in her hometown. I confirmed it with them, and then tested her remains myself. No Evolved abilities.”
There was a long moment of silence as the Fixer digested everything Dr Diablo said. He was no longer certain how to feel. The Doctor interrupted his thoughts, “Now do you see why I am eager to find out what makes it tick? Someone somewhere out there has beaten me in my quest and I intend to find out how.”
The Fixer paused for a moment, choosing his next words carefully, “Do you have some personal vendetta against this... ‘specimen’?”
“Nonsense!” came the reply almost without thought, “This is pure scientific curiosity! Think of all the possibilities to come out of this research! That little puzzle is the key! And I must have the answers!”
The Fixer leaned back in his chair as a smile slowly spread across his face. “If this was personal, I would have refused. I have no interest in getting involved in petty rivalries and oneupmanship. But scientific progress, now that is a different matter altogether. Too many people lose their objectivity in the pursuit of scientific discovery,” Still smiling, he sat up straight, looked Dr Diablo squarely in the eyes and said, “When do we start?”
“Right after tea of course! We’re scientists, not barbarians!”
“An artificial Evolved my man! The first of her kind!”
“But that’s impossible. Adding ‘Evolved’ genes to an ‘normal’ subject usually ends up destroying the subject.”
“Because Evolved powers are not the result of a single gene or even a single chromosome. There’s complex gene interactions that even I cannot replicate reliably.”
“So she’s a…”
“Yes, artificially grown. Genetically engineered from birth.”
“But, the first Evolved began appearing five years ago, so she would have to be less than five years old?!”
“For the first, we still cannot figure out why people began developing powers five years ago, but given the complex nature of the genetics involved, as well has the spread among the population..."
“It was estimated that some ‘event’ took place somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, of which we could not detect any remnants.”
“So, if we eliminate the possibility that the same event that created all the Evolveds in our world, also created Victory Girl, we can then work from the point that she was indeed ‘developed’ in a Lab. After all, there is much you do not know about accelerated growth. Back when I was still an ‘acceptable member of society’, I had achieved stable, controlled accelerated growth. Two years for every one year. It was of course, never published because it was one of the things deemed unethical. They brand me the devil for that. The shortsighted fools! Today, I can go up to five years for a year. But I have only ever managed it with one subject who survived the process all the way to the end.”
“So we…”
“Not only have an artificial Evolved, we also have one accelerated to adulthood.”
The Fixer who was sitting up straight for this whole discourse finally sat back. All the points were right in front of him, but he had never bothered to connect them because of how improbable it all sounded. And yet, with the new bits of information, the puzzle seemed to fit better than before.
“So… it finally makes sense. How some random person, off the street secured a meeting with the President and a few days later, E-Division was formed. With her at its helm no less.”
“So you finally see,” said Dr Diablo as he took a well deserved sip from his tea. Over time, this little story had become his litmus test. On the surface, it was perfectly at home in all the thousands of odd conspiracy theories that floated on the internet about the enigma that was Victory Girl. Only those who had some understanding of the nature of how the Evolved and the system worked, knew just how plausible the whole hypothesis was.
“So she’s some kind of government-sanction artificially bred Evolved supersoldier? Where would the base genetic material come from? We still can’t create a human, much less an Evolved from scratch. And more importantly, are there more like her?”
“Here’s the interesting part. As soon as I saw what she did that fateful night, I invested resources but failed to identify her. When I heard she was in contact with the President, I roped in certain members from a Brain Trust run a facial recognition on her and it turned up negative in all databases. That is, until one of the more… interesting members, dug up a deleted picture, that had not yet been cleared from their cache. It was purged as soon as they detected the intrusion, but by then, our little genius had the file.”
On the screen was a young lady who looked exactly like Victory Girl, except, the picture was of a driving licence from 2010. Of a 17-year-old Helena Taylor.
“This young lady died in 2011. Accidental drowning in a terrible storm at sea. Parents buried her in her hometown. I confirmed it with them, and then tested her remains myself. No Evolved abilities.”
There was a long moment of silence as the Fixer digested everything Dr Diablo said. He was no longer certain how to feel. The Doctor interrupted his thoughts, “Now do you see why I am eager to find out what makes it tick? Someone somewhere out there has beaten me in my quest and I intend to find out how.”
The Fixer paused for a moment, choosing his next words carefully, “Do you have some personal vendetta against this... ‘specimen’?”
“Nonsense!” came the reply almost without thought, “This is pure scientific curiosity! Think of all the possibilities to come out of this research! That little puzzle is the key! And I must have the answers!”
The Fixer leaned back in his chair as a smile slowly spread across his face. “If this was personal, I would have refused. I have no interest in getting involved in petty rivalries and oneupmanship. But scientific progress, now that is a different matter altogether. Too many people lose their objectivity in the pursuit of scientific discovery,” Still smiling, he sat up straight, looked Dr Diablo squarely in the eyes and said, “When do we start?”
“Right after tea of course! We’re scientists, not barbarians!”
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