Scientist: An Earth 340K Standalone Novel (Soldier X Book 1) Read online

  “Please? I would like to go and visit my brother,” she repeated.

  The backhanded blow caught her across her left cheek and it stunned her. No matter how she anticipated it, the first hit was always a shock. He lifted her buttocks and slammed her against the table. Dang undid his belt and his yellow pants pooled to the floor.

  “You are not allowed to visit him.”

  “Not here, Dang,” she said. Her face turned bright red. “Lizhang is going to come home from school.”

  Dang ripped away the buttons at the top of her cheongsam exposing beautiful pale breasts. He slurped at the juiciest piece of meat, even better than the shrimp dumplings, and he bit savagely against her nipple making her jump. He took her right there, hammering his hips into her repeatedly. He came quickly and shuddered in ecstasy. His hand splayed out against the table, and the bowl and its noodles and soup went splattering to the ground.

  He walked away naked and left his clothes on the floor, he called out to her, “Make sure you clean that table. Come upstairs and give me a shower massage. Quickly. I’ve got to go back to work and attend a meeting arranged by Anastasiya

  Chapter 4 - Invalid

  Wenqi Mu’s world filled with terror and pain as two snake demons engulfed both sides of his arms and chomped down. The snakes morphed into the body of the Chao-chao plant and tore his arms off. He screamed as he woke, his eyes flickering and his body shuddering as he sat forward.

  The small noise of struts moved behind him and then a soft bed pressed against his back.

  Where am I? His nostrils filled with the smell of Berrytrace freshener. The familiarity of the hospital-grade air refresher they used in the Department of Botanical Weapontech made him think he sat in the lab. But judging by the panel across him that showed his heart rate, blood pressure, and hydration levels, he doubted this was Lab 06. He turned as movement attracted him.

  The entire glass wall faced a large ground level city. Strangely, there weren’t any high cities hovering above it. A multitude of tall, dank towers crowded against one another strapped by a highway clogged with peak hour aero-cars. The city sprawled itself across the horizon in shades of brown, gray, and black.

  With no high city above it, wherever he was, this wasn’t Beijing. At the top of the glass wall’s digital display it showed: Urumqi Mid City. Time: 15:01:03. Date: 12/5/330K.

  Three p.m., Wenqi mused inwardly. How long had he been here? Judging by the way he felt, he’d probably been there longer than a few hours.

  His attention strayed back to the displays against the wall. Next to the display that showed his vitals sat black strips that separated another large display. The other display showed the vitals of another patient. He stared at that display for a moment, too dazed to register the name above it.

  Wenqi slowly turned his head. The man across from him slept in a wide hospital bed with a display behind him against the wall. The display talked about an accident involving an explosion.

  Wenqi couldn’t tear his eyes from the man’s head. The man’s head wrapped entirely in white bandage. Where the eyes should’ve been two dark holes seeped rust-colored puss.

  “Hey?” Wenqi called out. His voice rasped against his own ears. Wasn’t there something familiar about that man? Wenqi reached out to the man and searing pain flared across his arms. His body leaned to the side of the bed. If it wasn’t for the bed automatically adjusting and tilting him back down he would’ve fallen off.

  What was wrong with his arms? He tried reaching out again. His arms went up but he couldn’t see them. He squeezed his eyes against the pounding in his head.

  “Would you like some water?” said the voice from a bot. It was one of those hospital servbots. A small square box completely white with a green cross painted across its sides. Two huge black lenses whirred as they stared at Wenqi.

  “Yes,” Wenqi said.

  The drone flew to the seats against the walls and picked up a tray laden with cold food and a small cup of water. As Wenqi’s eyes trailed the servbot, he realized that he lay in a hospital.

  The blur of a nurse passed through the door to his left. He almost called out, but the servbot returned and laid the hovering tray over the front of the bed. It took the cup and held it in front of his face.

  “Thank you,” Wenqi said reflexively. He reached out to the cup, but the servbot moved out of reach. “What are you doing?” The servbot floated back to his mouth. He reached out again but his hands didn’t work.

  Thick bandages went around his upper shoulder and tendrils dangled where his biceps should’ve been…there was nothing. No, that couldn’t be. No.

  “Nurse!” Wenqi shouted as the blur went past the door again. This time she stopped and stepped into the room.

  “What’s happened to me?” Wenqi asked.

  The nurse wore a high-peaked hat that swept her hair back and revealed a narrow forehead. She briskly walked over and commanded the room’s AI to undim the floor to ceiling windows that stared out into the city. Wenqi twisted his face against the bright stabbing sunlight coming into the room. It didn’t help that he almost felt he had raised his arms to cover his face, only nothing happened.

  The nurse said, “Your state sponsored health ID is rejecting payments. You and your friend will need to leave in the next hour. This room has already been booked.” She stood at the foot of his bed and stared down at him.

  Wenqi felt affronted. He couldn’t remember the last time somebody addressed him so rudely. Didn’t she know he was a People’s Servant? He served the Department of Botanical Weapontech as a Principal Scientist. He and his best friend, Hazou, were one of only a handful of the most decorated scientists in all the China People’s Empire.

  Wenqi opened his mouth to speak, but the nurse walked up to him. She roughly pulled the bandages around his shoulders and let them curl to the floor. A distasteful expression filled her face at the slight yellow encrustation that marred the bandages.

  “You were in that lab accident. Both your arms were blown away right from the top of your shoulders.” She shocked him by pulling his head so that he stared right at the stump where his shoulder should’ve been. She repeated this for his other side.

  He had no arms.

  Wenqi shuddered as a cold feeling went into his veins, and then his jaw slackened and the world slowly melted in front of him. The nurse’s face dissipated until only her jaws stared at him.

  “No.” He shook his head. “No.”

  The nurse pressed her hands to either side of where his arms should’ve been, forcefully pressing him back against the bed.

  “Yes. Armless. No hands.” She dusted her palms as she jerked upright. “But your friend. That’s worse. He’s blind.” She pointed at the man on the next bed.

  It hit Wenqi like ice water to the face. That man who slept across from him in in that bed, covered in the white blanket, with all that bandage wrapping his face, was none other than his almost-brother and best friend, Hazou Sai.

  “Hazou?” Wenqi called out. His tremulous voice echoed in the room. Tremulous and desperate. “Hazou?”

  Hazou stirred in his bed. His head shifted slightly. The nurse told the room’s AI to push Hazou’s bed to a forty-five degree angle.

  “What? What is it Wenqi?” Hazou said, startled. His arms flailed in front of him. “Why is it so dark here? I cannot see anything.”

  “Stay still,” said the nurse brusquely. She unwound the white tendrils of bandage and left them drooping around the base of Hazou’s collarbone like necklace of bones.

  It was the pits where Hazou’s eyes should’ve been that made the choking sound in Wenqi’s throat. Hazou’s eyes were gone, and puffed and bruised eyebrows rimmed puss-encrusted cadaverous flesh.

  “No!” The gasp that erupted from Wenqi’s mouth swung Hazou’s head like invisible hands to stare at Wenqi. It was like seeing a terracotta soldier turn and stare at him.

  “Hazou…do you remember the lab accident? The explosion. Do you remember?”
<
br />   “What’s that got to do with…,” A long, thin sigh oozed out of Hazou’s mouth. “Yes, I remember.”

  Wenqi didn’t remember. He couldn’t. So he asked softly, “What happened?”

  “The Chao-chao plant took the bomb. It sucked it in but then…something happened and it spat it back out. With enough force to slam the reinforced transpasteel enclosure and caused the field-sphere to dissipate….” He suddenly lapsed into silence. “Why can’t I see anything?”

  The nurse knuckled Hazou’s forehead as if he were a thick student instead of the one of the most respected scientists in the China People’s Empire. Hazou jumped in shock.

  “You are blind,” the nurse said, stooping close to Hazou. “Both your eyes exploded and liquefied into a super-hot mist. You are lucky to be alive.”

  “No. No that can’t be,” said Hazou. He stared to the right where he thought the nurse’s voice originated but she stood to the left. She threw up her hands and left the room, shouting behind her back. “Use your hands to feel the empty sockets.” She stopped before exiting. “You, armless, remember you both leave in ten minutes time.” She pointed to the clock that appeared below the floor to ceiling window that stared out at Urumqi. The digital display below read 03:50.

  Wenqi opened his mouth to say something, but she already left and Hazou’s forlorn voice attracted his attention.

  “Wenqi, why can’t I see anything?” Hazou said.

  “You’re blind. It’s true. The explosion. And I do not have any arms left.”

  Suddenly Wenqi wanted to laugh. This question coming from one of the greatest minds that worked for the China People’s Empire, this coming from a man who invented the triants, the dragonfly troop transport, and many other things. For all that work, Hazou was eventually given the most prized project of all: the Chao-chao plant. A project near and dear to the People’s Favor herself, the most powerful person in all the world. It had been a grand ride. Two boys from Urumqi defeating the odds. And Wenqi was just only now coming to the realization that ride might soon be over.

  But he wouldn’t give up. He and Hazou had risen to where they were because of their persistent hard work over a twenty-year period.

  “Hazou, we have to leave this hospital. They have told us that our government health IDs aren’t paying out.”

  “I…I can’t be blind,” Hazou said. He turned to face his friend. “Invalid?” he scoffed. “How can we be invalids? We are servants of the China People’s Empire. Who said we are invalids?” His shrill voice held a tinge of hysteria.

  “The nurse said so,” replied Wenqi.

  “Turn on the lights,” said Hazou.

  “The lights are on.”

  “Make them brighter,” said Hazou.

  “It is daytime and the sunlight is flooding this room.”

  Silence.

  “Wenqi, what’s happened to me?” Hazou said.

  “Feel your eyes,” said Wenqi, his heart deflating like a popped balloon. “Slowly.”

  Hazou’s fingers rose like the fingers of a corpse and gently prodded his cheeks, going up slowly until they should’ve touched his eyes. Only now, they touched the pink of flesh and his fingers flew away as if they touched scalding hot water.

  Hazou’s body jerked off the bed and fell to the floor, landing heavily on his buttocks. “No,” he said. “No.” His fingers reached for his eyes and felt at the hollows. “Noo!”

  Chapter 5 - You're Fired

  The Gobi Forest spread across the horizon in pristine green glory. Air-tinge filters, cylinders the size of aero-buses, hovered up high whirring as they worked overtime to cleanse the poison from the air. The cylinders formed a meshed pearlescent enviro-net over the air like a billowing tent—probably over a thousand of them over the forest—and they also connected to the land filters, which sat along the perimeter of the forest ground.

  Most of land on Earth consisted of black blotches of coruscated rust.

  Wenqi thought that one of the many benefits of making it through the trials and tribulations of becoming a People’s Servant within the Ministry of Science and Technology, besides the societal prestige, came with the fact that their office located itself in the most beautiful surroundings of planet Earth. Growing up in Urumqi, he had been a part of the ninety-nine percent of the population that only experienced nature through a neuralnet connection.

  To work in the Department of Botanical Weapontech meant that lunch could be taken in strolls across a beautiful bridge that crossed a meandering river.

  The individual trees crystallized as the aero-taxi made a low approach. Hazou and Wenqi sat in the back seats eagerly waiting to get out. The speakers inside the cabin boomed: “You are entering restricted area. Abort your flight or you will be targeted.”

  Wenqi leaned forward over the firewall that separated the driverbot from the back. “Land now,” he urged it.

  The driverbot consisted of a head stuck into a pole planted in the middle of the firewall. The bot’s face consisted of a display panel that now showed widened eyes. It turned around and said, “Landing immediately.”

  The seatbelts around Wenqi and Hazou wrapped themselves tightly and the aero-taxi fell like a rock. Wenqi’s stomach dropped, and he reached out to hold the sides of the taxi—it was strange he almost felt his hands do that—only they weren’t there. Phantom limbs, he thought.

  The aero-taxi thumped onto the grass by the wide road that led up to a huge guard post. A door swished open by the side and several securibots scanned the taxi with their laser eyes. They walked through a gate and headed toward the taxi pointing their forearms laden with projectiles.

  Sweat broke out over Wenqi’s forehead. The driverbot appeared unaware of the growing threat outside. Surely it was a mistake? Hadn’t the securibots identified Wenqi’s and Hazou’s gene-ids? They would register as employees of the department.

  The driverbot’s annoying voice said, “Your bank has declined payment.”

  An animation showed an arrow heading into an iCash machine bouncing back, played itself on the face of the driverbot.

  “Try again,” Wenqi said.

  “The People’s Bank has declined your payment request,” said the driverbot.

  “That’s not possible. I’ve got a hundred thousand dollars.” He did have money in his bank account. “Is it the People’s Bank you are trying? My gene-id?”

  A display zoomed in and sure enough, the inverse C that was the universal icon for iCash kept blinking red. Declined transaction, it showed Wenqi. Meanwhile the securibots knocked against the aero-taxi’s door, gesturing at them to open.

  “Try my bank,” said Hazou.

  The driverbot scanned Hazou’s face. The holo-display showed the same animation with the arrow heading into an iCash machine and bouncing back.

  “Declined,” said the driverbot.

  Wenqi swallowed as he stared through the windows. Something in the distance caused all the securibots to back away. What could it be?

  Hazou said, “Can you try Nuan Sai’s account. Same bank. I am her delegate holder.”

  “Confirmed, please give me the password,” said the driverbot.

  Hazou spoke the password and the animation turned blue.

  “Payment processed. Goodbye,” said the driver. The gull-wing doors to either side of the car swung open suddenly.

  “Hazou, come toward my voice,” said Wenqi. He gritted his teeth in frustration as his legs wobbled under him. His knees were against the firewall that separated the passenger and driverbot compartments. Eventually he managed to get his knees so that they pointed out the right side. Just as he put his foot out onto the grass, the taxi began to whir as if about to take off.

  “Hazou!” Wenqi shouted as his friend fumbled toward him. The aero-taxi lifted and Wenqi lost his balance as he landed on the ground. He tried holding out his hands to avoid falling, but there weren’t any hands! Argh! Hazou crushed into him. They both fell onto the grass.

  The breath oof’d out of Wenqi
and he gasped at the air like a man suffering advanced air-tinge. He tasted green grass and spat it out.

  As he twisted himself to his side, he caught a glimpse of the aero-taxi as it flitted away into the sky, heading toward Urumqi, trailing brown smoke. “I hope the environmental inspectors get you!” He spat in indignation.

  He’d completely forgotten about the securibots. But something a lot worse greeted Wenqi’s vision. Three silverite legs that sliced downward like curved vibroblades splayed themselves against the grass.

  Right in front of` him.

  He swallowed, felt his phantom hands reach forward to push himself up from the ground. He craned his neck and saw the torso. Immediately he shivered. A strange mixture of fear, embarrassment, and fear flooded through him. He couldn’t push himself up.

  Hazou had managed to scramble up over him. He held out his hands feeling the air.

  “Wenqi Mu and Hazou Sai,” said the voice. Its hand reached down and grabbed Wenqi by the scruff of his neck. He felt the sheer strength in that grip as he hung in the air with his legs dangling below him.

  A triant stood in front of him and gently lowered him down. The triant’s three sliced legs melded together into a skeletal-like spine that went up about a hand-span and terminated into a hexagonal torso. The torso held a nozzle in the middle surrounded by tiny circular barrels. The triants had four hands, blade-like in their design. Yet it was the triant’s face that arrested Wenqi. Triangular cuts within the dome shaped head revealed human eyes and consisted of three layers of domes.

  What was a triant doing here? It was one of the People’s Favor’s personal bodyguards. That triant in front of him could wipe out an army of securibots.

  “I am Jingfei. Both of you follow me,” said the triant. Her voice held an assured calmness to it that made him realize she wasn’t going to shoot him. She turned around and scuttled toward the gate.