Strings Attached

I NEED TO SEE YOU.

Five words. Five small, simple words. But the force of them was enough to shatter her entire world. Anne read the message again- for the hundredth time- searching for some hidden meaning in the words.

"The usual?"

She startled at the question, surprised that she had reached the front of the line. Tom, the barrista looked at her expectantly.

"Yes," she nodded.

Her eyes drifted towards the large screen on the wall above the counter.On the Langstorm trial that was being replayed. The recording cut to the sentencing, then the images of the man himself- the villain of the hour, Prometheus fallen- being escorted out in handcuffs.

"Didn't you used to work for that guy or something?" Tom asked, depositing her bergamot Chai latte on the counter.

"Or something."

She took her drink and hurried out of the coffee shop, away from the questions and the newsfeed.

She had made a point of not watching the news. Not watching the trial. Trying to avoid all of it. A difficult feat, since it was all anyone could talk about. Still she'd managed...managed to forget the career she'd left, the life she'd left. It hadn't mattered. Pretend at something long enough and you might start to believe it.

And then he'd sent the message.

I NEED TO SEE YOU.

What in the universe could he possibly want now? After everything?

She looked up at the sky. Clear blue, perfect. It was a beautiful day. It wasn't so long ago that she had stared at a sky just like this. Except it hadn't been real. She often wondered if anything from that time had been.

...

DNA World's head research centre on Luna colony was a sight to behold. A mammoth structure carved into the crater, it was more monument than building.

The inside was no less impressive, with its high domed ceiling set to display an image of a picture perfect blue sky. But the crowning architectural glory was the sculpure on the ground, beneath the domes's zenith. A towering double helix stood at the centre of a large pool, water sprouting from all sides.

At first, Anne thought the fountain was just a simulation. But there was no mistaking the slight spray of mist if you got too close. Actual water. It was beautiful, regal and an obscene waste of water on the moon. She could only imagine the uproar this might have caused. But then again, Robert Langstorm had managed to achieve not only genius but celebrity status, which warrented not only eccentricities,but grossly extravagant ones.If anyone could squeeze water from the proverbial stone that was the Luna Works Conglomerate, it would be him.

Many people considered Langstorm the greatest geneticist of all time. The man who would help humanity ascend. The savior of the human race.The second coming, the way some spoke.

Anne just considered him a pompous ass. And that was on good days.

He'd been her academic supervisor for her PhD before all of this.He was brilliant, exacting, uncompromising and a straight up pain in the rear. They had argued incessantly. But (she had to grudgingly admit) he had pushed her further than she ever expected to go. Pushing boundaries was his mantra, his creed, his life's work. It was the reason for all of this. The reason she was here.

"Anne, so good of you to come."

As if she had a choice.

Unlike him, she was military. A scientist yes, but an officer first. She went where she was told to go.

"Robert. You look well."

And you should, given that your company just stole the military's soldier enhancement contract right out of Cybercore's hands.

"Let me give you the tour," Robert said, eyes glowing with an excitement. He was like a small boy, eager to show off some treasure he had found.

Anne suppressed a sigh. She was tired. She had gone straight from assignment on Europa to Luna. She had barely slept, spending most of the trip trying to come up to speed on what Langstorm was doing. She hadn't followed his career after his mentorship had ended. But he had studied hers. And personally requested her in a manner that gave the military-and her-no room to say no. She couldn't refuse coming to Luna, she doubted refusing the grand personal tour was an option.

"Lead the way."

Langstorm led them through various levels, passing offices, labs, facilities for staff, even apartments for employees who were not Luna citizens. As they moved the images on the walls changed, displaying videos of all the wonders the company had achieved from medical marvels of curing disease, preventing certain genetic ones to more whimsical things like glow in the dark fish and talking pets.

"A talking dog? Really?"

Langstorm laughed.

"Not quite yet. Only two maybe three words. Early prototype but promising. But that isn't the reason you came all this way. That is through here."

He led her into a room with a series of glass squares. Each squares contained a person behind their walls, doing different things, while outside researchers gathered data or made adjustments on the screens outside the cubes.

She stopped in front of one.

A young man, no older than twenty, was sitting in a chair, with various monitors hooked up to him.

"Increasing temperature 44 degrees Celsius."

"Vitals holding."

"Enzymatic stability present."

"...going up to 46."

"Stability maintained...how you doing in there Ravi?"

The young man looked up and gave a thumbs up. He seemed quite relaxed despite the heat. He had barely even broken a sweat.

The cube next to his contained a girl, possibly the same age. The researchers were manipulating gravity, steadily increasing the g force the same way, and monitoring how much she could take.

"What is this, Robert?"

"This is the future Anne. The future of the human race. We left the confines of our planet, pushed out beyond the borders of our solar system. And then we were surprised when the universe pushed back. The void is a deadly place. And humans as we are now...we are not strong enough to survive it. But this is the beginning. Not for us to survive but to thrive."

Anne looked around. There were maybe ten more cubes. All filled with people. All testing other parameters, other extremes. Pushing boundaries.

The military brass must have wet themselves with excitement when Robert pitched this. Soldiers that could go past the limits of human physiology. Stronger, smarter, tougher.

"Why me?" Anne asked.

"What?"

"Why am I here? This is amazing, Robert, but not my area on engineering."

It wasn't even close. She'd been working on plants. Adapting Earth species for extreme environments. Modifying plants to be used in bioreactors for fuel on ships and stations.

"I trust you," Robert said after awhile. "The military insisted one of their scientists had to be on site. I don't just want anyone in my lab. Besides, I read your paper on the Luciferon. I'm interested in that and I happen to have a live one here. It seems to be more plant than animal, who better to study it than you?"

Anne couldn't believe it. He had a Luciferon. They were extremely difficult to procure, coming from a region in Episilon space that was a virtual war zone. Trade ships avoided that sector at all cost. And the ones that went were generally not the kind most people did business with. But Robert wasn't most people. And his gifts always came with strings. But at this point, she was stuck here. String or no, it wouldn't hurt to look at it.

...

But it had hurt. It had more than hurt. Anne sighed and sat down on a bench in the park across from the cafe. She held her tea in one hand and her phone with the message in the other.

She didn't know why she was even bothering with the message. She wasn't going to go see him. Robert had betrayed her. He'd stolen her work. He'd used it and her. And what he'd done, the experiments on children.

No. She wouldn't go to him. She hated him.

But do you really?

Hate him? For what he did?

Or do you hate him, because, deep down you still love him?

"Fuck," she whispered.

...

"Anne, so good of you to come."

As if she had a choice.

"Robert," she said, "You don't look well."

He looked thinner than the last time she saw him. And older. And...haunted.

As you should, Robert. You crossed a line. Or several. Bad enough that he'd experimented on children. But he'd broken Earth law and Inter-Galactic law by splicing human DNA with alien DNA.

"I've been better Anne. I...I don't have much time. The girl...Minnie, you remember."

"Yes."

The little girl, with blue skin and platinum hair. The one that had Luciferon DNA spliced into her genome. It gave her the strange colour and even stranger abilities.

"I need you to find her. To take care of her."

"What?"

"You always wanted a daughter."

Yes. It was true. It had been the source of many arguments between them. They'd gone from colleagues to friends and then lovers. She'd wanted more. A family. A life. A home with him. But Robert had been too obsessed with his work.

And then he'd used her research in the most unethical and illegal way possible.

Used her.

Made her wonder if any of it, the friendship, the love, had been real.

"Robert, you can't just..."

"I can. I...She's my daughter."

"What?"

"I didn't know...It wasn't...it was a one night stand. Her mother contacted me. She had Asterman's syndrome, Minnie. She would have died if I didn't do what I did."

Anne felt her world shift. Robert had a daughter.

"I gave her the only thing I could..."

She looked at him, eyes glossing over with tears. "Oh, Robert."

Yes, he'd given his daughter a gift but his gifts always had strings. Did he do it for the girl, or for himself, to push another boundary?

"Please. Take care of her. She has no one...I have no one."

Anne looked at him, then nodded.

She couldn't possibly say no.

Robert was giving her a gift. She would accept it, strings and all.