Chapter 38: Chapter 37 – Crisis (2)

The hospital was a few kilometers away from the hotel which was the secret entry to the underground research facility. It was a five story tall, hexagonal complex with its sides painted red and white. It was the only hospital on the Moon’s surface, but it never needed another one. Because of the size of the Moon, it took only minutes to reach the place of emergency for their speedsters. Not to mention, it was equipped with everything to treat any kinds of injuries or sickness. No matter if it was about humans or aliens. 

On the fifth level, at the west side of it, at a place designated as the H-Wing was where Marin was being kept for the past weeks. Originally it was for hazardous infections but those were so rare, it was basically unused since its inception. When Marin started to feel sick, she was first thought to have a mild flu… but it very quickly turned to worse than that. Her organs started to fail, her skin turned yellowish and sick in color. She had recurring seizures and when Lizzy brought her in, being her mother, she was barred by the other doctors to ‘work’ on her own daughter. 

It gave her endless grief and frustration. No matter what she tried, she was barred from entering her room. It didn’t help that on the surface he was a scientist but not a real… doctor. She couldn’t flaunt her expertise nor could she prove her work experience as it was beyond classified. It was ‘nonexistent’. For the doctors present, she was a raving mother. They understood her pain but they were also frustrated with her ‘ideas’ what to check for. Like if she knew it better than the sophisticated AIs, machines and the experiences of REAL doctors. 

Lizzy tried to get the agency, their ‘guard dogs’ to act and pull something off, so she could do what she does best and check her daughter’s DNA to find out what is the real problem. There has to be something weird going on, especially since she was transferred into the H-Wing… It was THE hazardous wing of the hospital after all. But it was to no avail. They wouldn’t risk any chance for exposure and they remained silent, not helping their top scientist. She was replaceable… the project itself was not. 

Lizzy was in the lobby, collapsed on a chair, asleep, as she collapsed from exhaustion as soon as she sat down. She was disheveled, her face sunken in and she only slept because her body refused to stay awake after a 74 hour marathon. What neither she nor the doctors or the security systems realized was that a figure appeared at the top level, on the sterile corridor where Marin’s room was.

Alpha faltered a little, feeling dizzy and disoriented. He was zigzagging through the Moon’s surface in the past few minutes. Sometimes he ended up at the completely wrong place, missing his intended mark.

“This should be it…” He whispered, leaning against the wall, finding his balance a few moments later. 

He didn’t hesitate and entered the room of Marin, ignoring all the warning signs placed upon it. Inside, the young teen was laying on a bed, inside a glass ‘bubble’ which was hooked up to a machine. It was constantly purifying and pumping air into it, sealing her away from the world. Her skin was deeply yellowed, her hair faded out, barely maintaining her original, reddish color. She was only breathing because of the machine, hooked up to her chest, moving it instead of her failed muscles. Multitude of tubes were running in and out of her, all replacing one of her failed organs’ function to keep her alive as best as they could. 

“...”

Alpha wanted to say something but he just couldn’t find the words. Walking a step closer, he waved his hand, accessing the room’s AI, without any credentials. He simply overrode it and extracted the information directly into his own brain. He was finding more and more uses of those weird strings that he was afraid to interact with thus far. He learnt as soon as he touched it that seemingly a new virus was discovered inside of Marin’s body. They kept her alive, so they would be able to test methods against it as long as possible. They were trying to find a solution before it rears its head once again or starts spreading. They already gave up on her as she was nothing more than a host for the new virus. They quickly summarized that it originates from the slime-like alien species. For them it is nothing lethal. For their kind it acts like chickenpox for humans. It somehow mutated enough to infect a human and it happened to be Marin, catching it from one of her classmates… who just came down with it a week later. This never happened before and they didn’t know why it did now.

The doctors already took samples and were speculating if Marin’s condition was maybe made possible because of the way she was conceived. The mutation very well was made into a possibility because her own DNA strains were artificially made to begin with. Whatever may have been the case, they were close to a breakthrough to prevent the virus from mutating further and infect others. Even though they wouldn’t be able to save her life as only his brain was what was left working by itself. 

“Marin…” He said, touching the glass which, like a bubble, popped. It was falling into pieces of sand as he walked next to her bed. Maybe it was his presence, the way his mind was affecting the millions of invisible strings inside of her, but Marin did open her eyes.

“Alfy…” She thought as her throat was occupied by tubes and she couldn’t speak, yet he heard her clearly. He could feel that the girl was delirious, barely holding on.

“It is going to be okay…” He said, reaching down, caressing her head.

“I… don’t… think so…” She replied, even though her thoughts were also lacking any strength behind them.

“I am here. So it will be.” He said, with a much more firm tone.

“Alfy… I… love you…” She said, only capable of thinking that she should tell him, before it would be too late again. The last time they talked, she was frustrated. Not with him, but with herself. She was trying to tell him this but she just couldn’t form the words. She didn’t want to make the same mistake again this time.

“I know.” Alpha said, forming a small smile, making Marin chuckle or at least, she would have if she could.

“Don’t… quote me a… movie… you… dork…”

He just smiled at her before his eyes shrank to the size of a pinhole. All the colors were gone from around him and everything stopped moving. The machines’ beepings stopped and Marin was still trying to look at him but her eyes were barely working by now. Before Alpha’s eyes, she was mostly gone, replaced by an intricate cluster of many, colored strings. He never before concentrated so hard. He knew he couldn’t mess up and cut the wrong ones. That would mean certain death for her. His eyes were separating dozens at the same time, reconstructing Marin’s body as a 3D image in his brain. He was trying to filter out which strands were hers and which were simply tangled up with hers, not originally part of her very being. It would be impossible for him to do this to anybody else, but Alpha knew her, inside-out, so to speak. 

He still had to concentrate, painfully so. From the outside, his eyes were more than bloodshot now and blood was trickling from his nose as he meticulously removed the virus from her body, destroying it completely, removing its existence from reality itself. It took him more than 10 minutes to do so but from the outside world it was an instant. After removing her alignment, he needed to redo her damaged being. Marin’s colorful strings were all vibrating at a different speed, flashing with different colors, not in harmony at all. Alpha learned a long time ago that meant only one thing; that something was wrong. Structures with strings like those would fall apart, machines would break and people would die. Right now, Marin was on the verge of all those three possibilities.

As he was reconstructing her body, Marin’s skin color returned to her usual, healthy but a bit pinkish color. Her pores were oozing out a yellowish smudge, all kinds of impurities. It was sick smelling but it was being forced out of her, from everywhere. The machines she was hooked up to, long disconnected from her body, beeping loudly, alerting everyone in the hospital. The first to arrive was Lizzy herself. She managed to outrace all the doctors who were worried to check for contamination first, before stepping into the same floor as Marin’s room. Lizzy did not bother with things like that and she rushed into the room, finally able to get past the locked door. It was not hard as it was wide open at that moment. What she saw inside was more than surprising. Seeing Alpha standing there, with one hand on Marin’s head, looking at her, unblinking and blood dripping from his nose. 

“Alfy?” She asked, her voice weak, shaky. 

There was no answer and as she stepped closer, Alpha finally flinched. He slowly raised his hand, faltering, stepping back with shaky legs.

“She is fine…” He whispered, turning towards Lizzy with a smile as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and then he just collapsed.

“Alfy!” Shotued Lizzy, afraid that she was losing two of her children right now. Her shout woke up Marin, who gasped for air as she suddenly sat up. “Marin?!” Lizzy exclaimed with a choking voice, looking at her while also holding Alpha’s unconscious body.

“Mom?!” She gasped, breathing quickly, turning her head left and right, trying to recall what was happening to her. 

She remembered feeling sick, getting into the hospital… but everything was fuzzy after that. Her memories became muddy and they started to mix with dreams and reality. She dreamt about her mom, her being a Warrior Princess and also, confessing to Alpha. But… that shouldn’t be a case… or?

“What happened?” She asked, feeling completely fine and filled with energy. “Alfy?! Mom?! What is going on?!”

Her last question was repeated by the arriving doctors, wearing hazmat suits. They were expecting a breach in the protective, sealed bubble placed around the patient but not like this. This was the worst case scenario! Only… none of their sensors, none of the hospital’s sensors could detect the infection. Not in the air, not in Marin, nowhere…

…

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When Alpha came to be, he was back in his own room. The difference was, he was tied to it, with magnetically locked seals on his wrist and ankles. He had to slowly blink his eyes, getting used to the bright light before turning his head, looking around. There was nobody around at that moment. Sorting out his thoughts, he just let out a relieved breath, remembering that he managed to save Marin. It was all that mattered. Even if he would not be able to go back to his usual life anymore. As he was thinking about what was going to happen and debating whether to free himself or not, his new door opened up.

“Hm?” He flinched, turning his head as best as he could as the one who came in had an unfamiliar aura around him. 

It was an old-looking man. Barely 170 centimeters tall, wearing a formal, black suit, walking with an obsidian cane in hand. It had a golden lion at the top of it, holding a bright, red ruby in its mouth. He was leaning on it heavily as he slowly walked closer. His skin was wrinkly, filled with many brown spots. His white hair was thin and only a few, loose strands were combed backwards on his almost bald head.

“How did you do it?” He asked, slowly coming next to his bed, opening his thin lips, looking down at Alpha with his vivid, blue eyes. His voice was calm, surprisingly powerful and deep, despite his looks.

“Magic.” Alpha answered, the first thought that popped into his mind as he even smiled a little, looking like a mischievous kid at that moment. 

“Yes. I would also call it that.” The man answered but he didn’t get angry. He just looked at him, thinking about who knows what, before continuing. “The mother and daughter are fine. For now, they are under OUR quarantine, but they should be left out in another two days or so. Of course, on paper, they are dead. It was an unfortunate event in the hospital… truly.” He shook his head with a smile. “Well, the girl got her wish, no more school for her as they are going to be kept down here for the rest of their lives.”

“...” Alpha said nothing and neither did his expression change. He was still trying to read the strange man standing before him.

“Do you know who I am?” He asked after a minute of silence, letting him scan him with his eyes.

“No.” Alpha answered.

“Can’t you read minds?” The old man smiled.

“It does not work like that. And I do not wish to read everyone’s minds. It would be annoying.”

“Ahahaha… Interesting!” He laughed, tilting his head from one side to the other. “I am your owner.”

“...”

“No response?” He chuckled again and Alpha knew he was testing his reactions. “Let me rephrase it. I am your grandfather.”

“I have no parents. I was made by Liz and her team.” He answered. 

“You are artificial, yes. If we look at it that way, Lizzy is your mother. What made her birth you, was my money. Ergo, I am your grandfather.”

“Your money?” Alpha raised his brows.

“I am Ezekiel Mackenzi.”

“...” Alpha remained silent as the name did not mean anything for him. But then he remembered Marin’s words from years ago. “I am Alfy.” He gave out his own name, as etiquette would require.

“Do you know who led this project in reality?”

“I know about the ‘brass’ as they call them.” Alpha said. “But not their identities.” 

“Mhm.” Ezekiel nodded. “Leading military figures, CEOs of the biggest corporations, the people who hold the Hegemony’s wealth in their hands.”

“Not politicians?” Alpha asked as he always thought that the brass would be made up by the leading figureheads of the different nations on Earth.

“Those are changing every few years or decades. Do you think they could lead anything?” Ezekiel chuckled. “They are put in their positions by the corporations… and I own those corporations. I have the admirals and generals in my pocket. I name the CEOs and I decide who gets to be in power. I decide where we are heading and where we are expanding.”

“And?” Alpha asked suddenly with an honest, uninterested voice. 

“Ahaha… You're still young to understand.” He shook his head, his voice turning a bit kinder in tone. “The Galaxy is a dangerous place. When I created the first, true AI, more than 300 years ago, I ran tests, you know.” He explained, with a long sigh. “It all came back the same. There was… something. Something out there that was… more than us. The clues were there. Math was showing it to me. My searching always led me back to the same point. A point that I started to call; The Origin. No matter if it was biology, physics, chemistry, the laws of nature… The Astropaths… The clues were there and pointing at it. The fundamental rule that established order in chaos… A century of constant searching and problem solving led me to find out that… That God is real and he was out there. Somewhere.” He rambled on, looking into his eyes constantly.

Alpha was thinking about his words. Trying to make sense of it or see if he was delusional. But he was not lying. He was not clouded in his thoughts. He was speaking the truth and he believed everything he was saying to him. 

“I want to find him… I want to find God, Alfy.” He said, rubbing the head of his cane. “And you are going to lead me to it.”

“Me?” He asked, furrowing his brow.

“Yes. You. Your showcase of powers was the sign that I was right! Once again.” He smiled with a healthy dose of arrogance. “I established this project because I derived the Equation of God, you know… and I set out to create my own… Version of it. You just need time and if you grow into your true potential, you can replace the hiding God. Then our… my species will be the true rulers of not just this Galaxy… but the whole Universe!”

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