The Genesis Saga Chapter 69

Cirrus took her seat at the table as she waited to be admitted into the ergency eting Nessah had called. Shortly after, the others winked into existence around her. She wondered what they could have found that warranted the eting. Cirrus watched passively as Orryn joined the room, a curious expression on her face. She didn’t know either.

It took several more minutes for Elder Maraz to attend the eting, the final mber to arrive. “We are gathered her today at the request of our general. She claims to have found information important enough that we learn of it imdiately,” Kaius started. “Now that we’re all here, I believe it’s ti to bring in the general.”

Nessah appeared at the podium in the center of the room, her expression stone-faced. “Greetings, Elders.”

“Nessah, would you care to enlighten us as to what is so important?” Kaius asked.

“Of course. We have recently made headway with learning the secrets of the facility. Two of my soldiers believe they have discovered the chemicals used on Miss Ayala during her ti in captivity.” Nessah had the room’s full attention. With the wave of her hand, an incredibly complex molecule appeared in the middle of the room. “This is what’s believed to be the neurotoxin her cuts were doused in.”

Maraz stared at the image, trying to decipher it. As a chemist, this was his domain, yet he couldn’t make sense of the chemical at a glance. The others waited patiently for his assessnt. “I have no clue what this thing is trying to do,” he announced.

The others did their best to mask their disappointnt. Nessah sighed. “If that’s the case, then you won’t understand this one either.” The image changed with another wave. This ti, an impossible molecule floated in the room.

Maraz’s eyes widened at the sight. “By the gods, what on Verilia is this?”

“This was found in a file that had the video footage of Miss Ayala’s final torture session attached. We believe it to be the chemical responsible for her drastic reaction.”

Cirrus raised her brows. She hadn’t expected their search to be fruitful. She studied the molecule, trying her best to morize what she could. It winked out of existence, leaving her with a disappointingly incomplete image. She tsked.

“While we have discovered the substances used on Miss Ayala, the one used on Mr. Blackwood,” she pronounced in a pale imitation of English, “remain at large. We do not believe we will be able to uncover information regarding it any ti soon, if ever. Any and all files we’ve found pertaining to it are too corrupted to be of any use.”

“The chemical used on Miss Ayala was said to be derived from the one used on Adrian,” Cirrus pronounced better. “Could we not simply reverse engineer it and arrive at the sa result?”

“Good heavens, no!” Orryn shouted from across the table. “That would be a terrible idea! Why would we knowingly make that chemical worse than it already is? We’ve seen what it does. We have video proof. How could any of you stand to make sothing that would cause even greater pain?”

“Relax, Orryn,” Cirrus said. “I’m not saying we should. I’m just saying that it’s hypothetically possible. I agree that this chemical should never be used on anyone, even for a test. Those videos were proof enough of that.”

“Then why ask if we could do it? You’re practically inviting people to study it, which we said would be forbidden. Don’t forget that this information is to be sealed. After this eting, it will only be accessible by unanimous vote.”

“I’m well aware,” Cirrus said dryly. She had no illusions that their discovery should be further refined. “What I was trying to get at was that if we could do sothing on our own, is there really a need to look at the end result? Now that we’ve got two of the three most dangerous chemical known to us, is there really a need to go after the third one? If we’re not going to study the chemicals anyway, I would prefer it if we focused our efforts elsewhere.”

“And what did you have in mind, Cirrus?” Kaius asked.

“I want that corruption cracked. I want access to the files of what they did to Adrian. We could learn so much.”

“You would dare?” Orryn raged from across the room. “You want to turn the man who was a living experint back into a living experint? Have you gone mad?”

“No, Orryn, I haven’t. If we find out what’s in those files, then we don’t need to experint on him. We can see what it was that they were trying to do without ever needing to lay a finger on Adrian.”

“What happens if we don’t like what we find?” Orryn challenged. “What do we do then?”

“If there are things we won’t like in there then it’s imperative that we learn about them so that we can protect ourselves from it,” Cirrus countered.

“It’s his expressed wish that he doesn’t let anybody find out what happened to him so that he doesn’t get turned into an experint again,” Orryn said firmly.

“And if we find the files then he won’t ever need to. We’ll be able to study the results independently without the need for him to be an experint.”

“Why can’t we just leave it be? Is there really a need to learn about what happened to the poor man?”

“Yes. Aren’t you curious about what the goals of the experints were? They must be sothing important if the gru’ul were willing to go so far. Wouldn’t it better to know what they are so that we can prepare counterasures?”

“By the gods, you’re treating him as a thing. He’s a person, not so walking threat that just so happens to look like us.”

“Imagine what we could learn,” Cirrus countered. “Their technology is leaps and bounds ahead of ours. We finally have the chance to learn so of their secrets. Imagine how we could advance our society.”

“So you want us to violate this man’s sanctity after everything he went through? Until when will you be satisfied?”

“Until we can learn the fundantals of whatever it is they were trying to do. After that, it’s on us to carry out any advancents. He could be what propels our society to a new golden age.”

The other Elders in the room humd thoughtfully at the prospects of what Cirrus was proposing. She’d brought up so interesting points that needed further study. Cirrus smirked when she saw the nodding heads of the people she was slowly swaying towards her cause.

“You can’t treat him like a lab rat. He’s a civilian now,” Orryn said coldly.

“That piece of paper? Who cares about that? Nobody knows he exists besides us,” Cirrus waved. “We don’t need his permission to view things that might both be a threat and sothing that would advance our society. As long as we don’t tell him about what we find, then we should be fine. He explicitly asked not to be made aware of any developnts. We’d be respecting that. We’d also be respecting not performing any experints on him.”

“You’re twisting his wishes to suit your own goals. The intent of his wish was clear. We should respect that and give the man his peace. After all the horrors he faced in there, he probably wants nothing more than to be alone where he can heal. That kind of person isn’t a threat to us. He’s more than happy to stay hidden away where nobody can find him. Why is it so hard to respect that? Not everything needs to be learned. Perhaps so knowledge is best left hidden. We already have information on the chemicals, is that not enough? We’ve found the dangers. This is our chance to walk away and leave well enough alone.”

Orryn received frowns and creased brows in response. Doubting her suggestion while seeing the positives that Cirrus’ idea would bring, the other Elders leaned heavily towards Cirrus’ side. They continued to discuss the rits of stances on the matter for several hours, until Kaius brought the room to a still.

“I believe that enough ti has passed,” he said. “By this point, all we’re doing is repeating argunts that have already been made. We should all have a fairly good idea on where we stand. I’m officially calling a vote to determine whether or not we should learn about what happened to Mr. Blackwood. Those in favour, vote now.”

Three orbs imdiately appeared above the heads of those who were in favour of uncovering the secrets of the experints perford on Adrian. Cirrus saw Maraz hesitate from across the room and smirked. She could see the hesitation in his eyes.

Orryn spotted the sa and turned towards him, hoping for a tiebreaker vote. She needed him to remain in her camp. “We don’t need to waste our ti with corrupted computers. We should study the other terminals that we know we can extract information from. But to do that, we have to shift our resources towards other things. We can’t afford to spend all of our ti with a maybe,” she tried one last ti, hoping to convince him.

Cirrus looked at Kaius, who did not reprimand Orryn for speaking during the vote. Such a thing was supposed to be impartial. Taking a chance, she spoke up one last ti, whispering the promise of riches in his ear. “We’re so close to cracking the corruption,” Cirrus said. “So close to having unfettered access to what they were trying so hard to hide.”

Maraz looked up towards Orryn and gave her an apologetic look before pushing his button to cast his vote. Orryn stared in horror as an orb appeared above his head, tipping the scale and determining what their next course of action would be.

“That brings us to majority,” Kaius said. “We shall therefore continue our attempt to crack the corruption and learn all we can about the experints perford on Mr. Blackwood. To respect his wishes, we will not tell him of our findings, nor shall we, in any circumstance, experint on him, regardless of our findings.” Passing his decree, he asked “Are there any who disagree with this?”

A lone orb appeared above Orryn’s head. The other Elders were satisfied with this outco. The orb vanished.

“So let it be,” Kaius said formally.

Orryn turned towards Maraz. “Why?” she asked. “I thought for sure you would have understood after viewing the chemicals.”

“It’s because of the chemicals that I voted in favour. I’d rather have the data on him in our possession rather than in sobody else’s hands. I care not if they’re sealed. By all ans go ahead. But this way, anything that cos through that might help us as a society can be filtered out to be studied independently. Anything dangerous can be sealed instantly, never to see the light of day again. After that, we can destroy the terminals to ensure that nobody else has access”

“This is incredibly invasive to Adrian’s privacy. I really hope that whatever we find is worth it, because I don’t think he’s going to take this well.”

“Mr. Blackwood is one person that stands in the way of the benefit of many. I believe in helping the many.”

“Then where does that leave Adrian?” Orryn asked sadly. “What happens to him next? One day, he’s going to find out that we’ve been keeping information from him and he’s not going to take it well. And rightfully so. We have to be careful now that he’s a civilian.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we co to it.”

“That’s a terrible idea. We should settle this now, while we’re one the topic.” Orryn looked towards Kaius and asked for permission to speak, Kaius granted Orryn her request and quieted the room.

“You may speak now, Orryn,” Kaius said.

“I think that we can all agree that while we’re following the Adrian’s request to the letter, we’re twisting it to et our own goals. Since I can’t convince you otherwise, we need to decide what we’re going to do with what we find. We need to determine what happens when we find sothing worth studying, as well as our response to how we’ll treat Adrian,” Orryn said.

“And how do propose we plan for this?”

“We define what falls under the sa category as the chemicals. We need guidelines to help us determine what constitutes as sothing too dangerous to study. There needs to be checks and balances in place if we’re going to deal with such ethically questionable information. We’re going to find sothing that goes too far at so point. Don’t forget that this ca from live experintation. Not everything we find is going to be good.”

“Orryn raises a valid point,” Kaius said, stroking his beard. “We need to be ready for the information we’re going to find. While the chemicals that were found fit into such a category without any doubt, we need to determine what else could be considered as information that is too dangerous. As such, we shall discuss how to classify the information we have found, as well an appropriate response to such sensitive information. Are there any ideas?”

For the next several hours, the Elders hamred out a functioning classification and response system detailing how they would treat whatever it was they were going to find. Not knowing what could possibly be on those terminals, it was decided that information could broadly be categorized into four separate groups. They even designated an additional category, distinct from the rest in that it contained information they were unsure of.

The first category consisted of information that had far more benefits than downsides. Anything in this category had incredible potential to advance their technology. Anything here was to be studied by anybody willing.

The second category was any information where a neutral stance was adopted, and the Elders were ambivalent towards the discovery. Information in this category required a notice of intent to be presented before the Tribunal.

The third was anything high risk. A majority vote was required to access any docunt pertaining to the information requested. Rights to research required majority vote.

The fourth was anything deed too dangerous for others to learn about. Anything imdiately deed dangerous upon discovery or that had the potential for dire consequences were to be placed in this category, to be imdiately sealed and requiring unanimous vote to view, including the Arbiter’s vote. Research on the topic needed to be formally presented to the Tribunal with a damn good reason for unsealing the information and making use of it. It too had to be approved by a unanimous vote, including that of the Arbiter. Any information in this category was to be treated with the utmost care.

“I believe we have succeeded in determining how to handle the information we’ll receive. Are you satisfied, Orryn?”

“Yes. However, there is one other topic that we have yet to discuss.”

“What might that be?”

“How we’re going to treat Adrian after making our discoveries. What do we do if we co across category four information that leaves us concerned about him?”

“It would have to depend on the information,” Kaius said.

“That’s what I’m talking about. Do we leave him alone regardless of what we find, or do we kill him if it’s too dangerous? We already have him protected and isolated from the rest of the world and dependent on us for survival. Whatever threat he might pose is effectively zero.”

“What are you suggesting we do then?” Kaius asked.

“We should leave him alone, regardless of what we find. He’s a citizen now and when it gets found out how we treated him after making him one, there’s going to be an uproar.”

“This isn’t going to be found out,” Cirrus said. “The whole point is to keep this a secret.”

“We all know this is going to get out eventually. How we’ll have treated him is going to be a problem one day if we’re not careful. What do we do on the off chance we discover sothing truly dangerous about him, yet he himself has no idea? These are all questions we need to ask ourselves now, rather than later, when it’s too late.”

Kaius sighed. “That’s an unfortunately good point. Looks like we’ll be here for a little while longer. Very well, let the discussion begin.”

The Tribunal debated on how to treat Adrian based on what they uncovered. Orryn fought for leaving him alone and not telling him what they’d found, regardless of how dangerous it was. Cirrus wanted to wait and see before deciding what to do with the knowledge. There was no way guessing about what they might find was a productive use of ti.

It was decided to wait and see, given the uncertainty of the situation. Orryn sank back into her chair as the eting ca to an end. She smiled tiredly. It was a partial win. She’d managed to ensure that Adrian would not be experinted on, regardless of the circumstances. Unfortunately, she couldn’t keep the others from learning more about what happened to him. It left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.