Downfall, Part 4
10 Jun 2017User4296
Deslandres Terminal, Yarrite SystemImperial Space
June 3302
"Looking good. Some of you spacers manage to clean up well. Still wish you would have shaved a little, though."
"Gee, thanks," I said half sarcastically, as Talia reached over and tightened the bow tie around my neck as the lift doors closed. She turned around a moment later, and I had to fight the immediate urge to loosen it again as I glanced over at her.
You cleaned up pretty well too, I thought. Our side trip to a nearby tailor had proven fruitful - I had come away with a black tuxedo, and she had found herself a floor-length, sleeveless black dress that hugged her curves but kept things tasteful. The ensemble was completed with the small black clutch she held in her hands.
"Besides," I said. "A man's beard is his freedom. It also hides the fact I have no chin."
She stifled a laugh as the lift began moving, the passage of floors marked by the lights that streaked downward in the slot between the doors. "No chin... right. So what's the plan?"
"Get in, have a look around, get out. See what we can see. We'll go in separately since they know who I am - you should be able to poke around if they're focused on me."
She nodded and sighed, doubtless releasing some of the tension she was feeling. I had to admit I felt much the same. The weapons had been the hardest decision, but in the end we were both unarmed - high society rarely brought personal defense weapons into press events.
Unarmed in the lion's den - not my finest moment.
The lift occasionally stopped as we climbed the floors, and Talia and I gradually let ourselves become separated as the stark, flawlessly white interior gained increasingly more people. Finally, the lift stopped for the final time, and the doors opened.
"Promenade," a voice intoned, the level that the press event was being held on, and the group slowly filed out of the elevator. Sure enough, there was a security checkpoint here, and we filed through metal detectors before passing into the lobby. My hunch had been right - most everyone had passed through without incident, and the few people that had possessed a weapon were led off down a separate hallway.
The room was large, circular, and oppressively white, as most things in the Empire were. A series of chairs dominated the center of the room, creating a sort of waiting area where several other people were already waiting and conversing with each other in polite tones. Our group intermingled with theirs, and before long people were scattered around the room.
A server wandered by with a large serving tray arranged with glasses of champagne. He paused for a moment as I reached out and took one, before he bowed slightly and continued on. I cleared my throat and turned away. "Test," I mumbled.
Talia's voice responded. "I can hear you," she said. I scanned the room for her and saw her looking at a screen on the wall, which seemed to show a map of the floor. "We're encrypted, but use these sparingly," she went on. "We don't want anyone picking up the signal and trying to break it."
I nodded, then sighed. "Got it," I said, and reached up to scratch my ear, thumbing the small device inside of it and muting the microphone.
I took a sip of the champagne as I looked around the room. A large door was set into the wall opposite from the elevator, and the small screen above it read "05:00" and appeared to be counting down. Just in time, I thought.
"Man, this is exciting, doncha think?" a voice behind me asked. I turned and saw a heavier-set tuxedoed man, his face slightly reddened, beaming at me. There was a woman on each arm, both bombshells and not wearing much in way of dresses, and all three of them were holding glasses like mine. "I tell ya, you just don't see major breakthroughs in bio-science anymore."
"Er, why is that?" I asked.
"Humans don't really get sick anymore, son," he said, gesturing at me with his glass. "And thanks to progenitor cells, we live a hell of a lot longer now, too. Cancer's all but been eliminated." The blonde on his right arm giggled, while the brunette simply looked bored. "Hell, even that plague that cropped up on a few stations a year or so back - you know how they cured it?"
My mind raced, searching for the answer. It came to me. "Tea?" I offered.
He let out a laugh. "That's right! Gorram tea!" he lifted his glass, not to his lips, but to the blonde's. She, in turn, reached her glass over toward the brunette, who lifted her own glass to the man, and all three of them drank in what was quite possibly the strangest thing I had seen. That day, anyway. The blonde giggled again. "What's yer name, son?" he asked.
"Stan," I said, thinking fast and failing.
"No shit? Small universe! Stanley Cobroe," he said. The blonde shifted her drink into her left hand, took a half step forward, and extended her right hand out toward me.
Oops, I thought to myself as I shook the blonde's hand.
"My assistants, Betty and Hayley," Stanley said, indicating the blonde and brunette in turn, after the blonde had returned to her previous spot with a giggle.
"They shake hands for you, too?" I asked.
He laughed again, accompanied by a titter from Betty. Even Hayley's face had adopted a slight look of amusement to it. "Not really a fan of that whole touching strangers thing," he said. "Enough about me, though. What's your interest in Apex Unlimited, Other-Stan?"
"Bio-science has been a... hobby of mine," I lied. "Maybe thinking about going back to school for it."
"Oh yeah? Where are you studying-" Stanley began, but was thankfully silenced by a loud noise across the room that seemed to emanate from the door.
"Ladies and gentlemen," a voice said, "It is now time for the presentation. Please make your way into the hall."
"Better hurry if we want good seats," Stanley said, guiding/being guided by his assistants around me and toward the door. "Good luck, kid!"
***
It didn't take long for the large group to make its way into the presentation hall, which was actually fed by two other rooms like the one we had just come from. However, despite Stanley's remark, there were no chairs, only tall tables, and within a few moments the room was wall to wall with people. I kept toward the back, and the number of people had made it hard to see where Talia went.
The one wall that didn't have a large door was dominated by a large stage with a single podium on it, and the wall behind the stage held two giant monitors.
After a few moments of excited chatter from the crowd, the stage illuminated.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the disembodied voice said. "We are happy to now introduce Donald Scott, Chief Operations Officer of Apex Unlimited."
A side door opened, and a grey-haired man dressed in a tuxedo emerged and made his way toward the podium as the room erupted in thunderous applause. Upon his arrival, two teleprompters rose from the stage on either side of the podium.
"Hello honored guests," Mr. Scott said. "Some of you are familiar with our company, but for those of you who are not, allow me to introduce us. Apex Unlimited has long been pursuing the goal of the betterment of humanity, and we believe that the field of genetic modifications, a relatively undeveloped field, is the key to humanity's future.
"Certainly," he went on, "humanity has access to genetic modifications, but to us, these were always deemed too easy. Sure, we can enhance your strength, improve your reflexes, increase your reasoning ability and memory, but these are all... well, kind of boring, aren't they?"
A murmur spread through the room.
"At Apex Unlimited, we believe we can go further. What about a human who doesn't need a pressure suit to go into space? What about a human who can survive in a carbon dioxide atmosphere? Withstand high levels of radiation? We believe these things are possible, and indeed, are close at hand."
The room's population applauded again, and Mr. Scott held up his hands. "We have plenty of time to discuss our vision and how you all can be a part of it," he said, once the applause had died down, "But I'd like to take this moment to introduce the man who started us on this quest and has been instrumental in guiding us so close to our goal. Ladies and gentlemen, our CEO, Maxwell Browning!"
Mr. Scott turned and gestured at the two screens, which both flickered on instantly, and both showed the same thing - a well decorated office high in a building somewhere, overlooking an ocean. Positioned directly in front of the window was a large mahogany desk, and seated behind that desk was a man who pushed his glasses back up onto his nose.
A man with a very familiar face.
Tucker.