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

  “You won’t believe what I just saw,” Wenqi said, then he winced. He should stop saying that. Hazou’s expression tightened.

  “What?”

  “A triant.”

  Hazou’s eyebrows rose. “Really? What’s a triant doing here? We are at the entrance to the Department of Botanical Weapontech right?”

  “We should go,” said Wenqi, feeling annoyed. Of course they were. But he truly didn’t know until he spotted the clump of buildings. When they worked in the department, they had caught the express aero-jet service from their apartments in High Beijing.

  Wenqi’s jacket sleeves dangled from his empty shoulder sockets and fluttered with the gust of wind. It suddenly gave him inspiration. “Hey, we can do it this way. Come close to me, I’ll turn my back to you and you reach out your hands. You can grab my jacket sleeves. Imagine them like reins on a horse! That way you can just follow me as I walk and you won’t bump into things.”

  Hazou smiled. “Great idea!” He reached out and grasped Wenqi’s sleeves. He had earlier helped Wenqi tighten all the buttons on his jacket.

  “That’s it, I can feel you. I can turn my shoulder leftward to indicate left and rightward to indicate right.” Wenqi felt the pressure from Hazou’s hands as they grasped the end of his sleeves.

  They followed the triant past the guardhouse, through the windy pathway shaded with tall, green bamboo shoots. The peacock calls fluttered through. Mountains surrounded Lake Analect, named after The Analects created by Confucius.

  Wenqi usually had lunch around that lake. Every time, it felt like he'd entered the famed lands where the Monkey God and his companions held adventures. He never got sick of this place. Baiji dolphins—reconstructed from ancient fossil by scientists in their own department—jumped up and splashed in that lake. The crash of bamboo shoots as pandas chewed on them echoed in the distance.

  Eventually the eight blocky buildings of the Department of Botanical Weapontech stared back at them. Each of the orange and white buildings stretched eight levels high. Eight because, according to Chinese belief system, eight meant fortune.

  Wenqi thought it odd that such traditions still abounded in this day and age.

  Several scientists in their white labs coats returned from their walk around the lake.

  Wenqi smiled as he recognized one of them. “Renziang!” he said. “Hi it’s Wenqi.”

  A strong clasp on his shoulder made him turn. Jingfei stared at him from her triangular eyes. “You are not allowed to make contact with any member of the service. You are to pick up your belongings and then leave the premises. Follow me.”

  Wenqi swallowed. The loss of face made him want to submerge into the earth. Their lab assistant, Renziang, whom he treated like a younger sister, and whom he had mentored ever since she’d joined the department, looked down as if too ashamed to face him.

  He closed his eyes and entered the building. If anybody could’ve died from being shamed surely that would’ve been a death blow.

  If Wenqi had known the loss of face had only just begun, he might not have stepped into the office building he’d once called a second home.

  Pristine white carbonmite flooring greeted him; floor to ceiling transpasteel glass created an airy feel. Strips of light recessed in the ceilings bathed the area in a nimbus hue. The red and gold colors of the China Peoples Empire striped itself elegantly across the top of the walls, and at one-meter intervals, the glyph of the jade dragon appeared in different poses: wings stretched, tail curled on itself, mouth open blowing flames, and slumbering.

  None of this impressed itself upon Wenqi because every single person who had been walking around stopped and stared at them.

  “You are not to initiate conversation,” said Jingfei. “This way.”

  “Wenqi, what’s going on?” Hazou asked, pulling on Wenqi’s jacket sleeves.

  Wenqi couldn’t talk. Something inside of him seized up.

  So many of my colleagues, Wenqi thought, suddenly swallowing at the lump in his mouth. As they proceeded, the crowd parted revealing Dang Mao, Director of the Department of Botanical Weapontech, arms crossed. The muscles along his smooth forearms tensed. His eyebrows bent inward and his nostrils flared.

  “You useless failures; how dare you come back here! I’ve stripped you of your government connections and still you dare to come in here?” He uncrossed his arms and wagged a finger at Wenqi. “I entrusted you with the most important project of all time, and you both failed. Get out!”

  Wenqi who had been about to ask the director about the issues they faced with their banks snapped his mouth shut.

  “They are here to collect their belongings,” said Jingfei. She stood to the side and front of them. Dang didn’t go near her.

  Hazou surprised Wenqi by speaking suddenly. His friend had been quiet all this time.

  “We are here to inspect the lab, Director. We may find some evidence of what the accident happened. We can fix it,” said Hazou, hope in his voice.

  “You fool,” shouted Dang. “The Chao-chao experiment is finished! I’m not investing any more effort into it.”

  Wenqi swallowed. It was a bad idea coming here. But where else could they have gone?

  “Nevertheless, it must be done,” said Hazou. “For the People.”

  Dang strode forward and Wenqi flinched.

  But the triant, Jingfei, stepped in front of Dang. “They will attend to the lab and then they will collect their belongings and go.”

  Not even Dang dared say anything to a triant. He backed away, his breath rasping through his throat. The tendons on his neck twitched. The look of fury and hatred would’ve scalded Wenqi had it been directed at him. The triant didn’t even flinch.

  “Follow me,” Dang said.

  The magmite roller door that stood in front of the lab had been removed. The walls around it had become unstable.

  Hazou held onto Wenqi’s sleeves tightly as he led him into the lab.

  Hazou sniffed at the air. “Wenqi, please describe what you see.”

  The middle of a lab resembled a crater. Layers of the titancrete floor lay exposed and twisted like the innards of a securibot. There wasn’t a sign of the tank except for the melted transpasteel that resembled water. Parts of the ground undulated out of the Earth like somebody had ripped skin.

  The walls had gone completely black. The steps to the left and right that led into the platforms where the compnodes had been stored turned into slag. The six fan grilles covered in chunks of black debris. One fan’s huge blade jutted down.

  The blinds in front of the viewing panel had become so hot they seared themselves into the transpasteel glass.

  Wenqi described all of this to Hazou as he stopped in the middle of the lab. Hazou turned around, his head tilted slightly like a bird’s.

  Temporary lights held up by small spherical servbots floated in the air at the corners of the room. A pain filled Wenqi’s chest as he watched his friend.

  “What of the plant is there anything left?” Hazou asked.

  “The ground where the plant was housed in the tank is torn asunder. There are bits of ground in the center of the room and debris.” Wenqi didn’t want to squat; he was afraid he might find it hard to get back up again.

  Dang squatted at the entrance of the lab. He reached out and snapped a piece of the ground like it was brittle chopsticks. He said, “You both failed to calculate the right tolerances. The width of the Chao-chao plant’s leaves was too long. The bombs calibrated at way too wide a blast radius. Mistakes upon stupid mistakes.”

  Wenqi frowned. How could that be? But it was Hazou who surprised him.

  “It was you, you fat pompous fool. You rushed the stupid dates and we couldn’t do the proper testing. I told you so many times. But no, you kept pushing. And this is what happens.” Hazou pointed up at the ceiling—Wenqi knew he intended to point at the plant if he hadn’t been blind.

  Dang spluttered and pounced to his feet, almost charging at Hazou who stood right be
hind Wenqi. “You dare insult.”

  Wenqi felt Hazou let go of his sleeves. His friend stepped past him with his hands out. If Dang hadn’t been getting up from the floor he wouldn’t have fallen. The director slammed into his back with a loud oomph as the wind was pushed out of him.

  Dang got up off the ground like he’d hit a trampoline. He flailed his right fist and it swung through the air.

  Jingfei stepped in grasped Dang’s hand. It didn’t even take her any effort. She twisted down and grabbed his other wrists bringing his hands together. She pushed him out of the lab. “You shall wait outside, Director,” said Jingfei. There was no mistaking the command in her voice.

  “I would be very careful where you tread. You only have one friend, remember.” Dang Mao shoved his face so near Jingfei’s that his breath misted against the silverite of her skull. He turned his back and left.

  “I don’t think you should’ve done that,” said Wenqi, feeling a terrible premonition. He wasn’t sure if he spoke to Hazou or Jingfei because only Jingfei looked at him.

  Hazou ignored him and squatted to the ground. His hands submerged up to his elbows in the tortured titancrete ground as if searching for something.

  Wenqi wanted to ask what he was looking for, but he decided to leave his friend there and look around the lab. Maybe he could salvage something.

  The more Wenqi saw of the dead lab, the more he thought it a miracle they survived. He ended up in the corner of the lab where a pile of goop - melted transpasteel glass - showed him his reflection. He stared at his shoulders where the jacket’s sleeves hung loose. The reflection showed him a deformed man.

  The ground level of the department consisted of office space where the scientists did their administrative work. Each cubicle consisted of an air-seat, and L-shaped desk with an inbuilt compnode with an attached neural-helm, and shelves below the desk for personal items.

  Wenqi led Hazou to where their desks sat in the corner of the office. Their compnodes displayed the China People Empire’s screensaver: a jade dragon on a red and gold yin-yang circle. It flipped like a coin every minute, revealing the words: ‘My Life for Empire’ on one side, and then ‘Seek the People’s Favor’ on the other side.

  Dang stood with arms crossed at the intersection that led to their cubicle. His lower chin jutted out and he shook his head. A vein pulsed on his forehead.

  Jingfei stood beside him, utterly silent. Behind them, the rows and rows of desks filled with the standing form of mute ex-colleagues. None of them said anything or came forward to help. They just stared. Wenqi knew it wasn’t their fault. They must want to say something, he thought, but Dang’s retribution would fall on them. Their colleagues needed their jobs for their husbands and children.

  “Get your things and get out,” said Dang.

  Every single one of their ex-colleagues averted their gaze and Wenqi’s loss of face increased even farther. Suddenly he just wanted to get out of the building.

  “Wenqi, can you please guide me to the corner of my table?” Hazou held out his hands and Wenqi walked to him so he could grab at Wenqi’s sleeves.

  Wenqi led Hazou to the corner and stayed by his friend’s side. He guided his friend to look for the things he wanted. Surprisingly Hazou only wanted one thing. His old hiking boots he used to walk around the forest at lunch.

  Hazou turned around and said, “Director, I would like to take some of my personal emails from this compnode.” Hazou’s face pointed at Jingfei when he spoke. He’d let go of Wenqi’s sleeves so his friend couldn’t help him look the right way.

  Dang smiled. “Would you? And would you like to take your twenty years’ worth of research? You might be able to use them in your next life.”

  Wenqi swallowed. That threat wasn’t the first time Dang used it. Dang called a holo-display to flare to life right in front of him. It showed all of Wenqi and Hazou’s research files they’d accumulated as principal scientists. Years of research.

  “We would love to,” said Hazou. “Take some of it. There were a lot of things we designed that weren’t just weapons.”

  “Sure, here you go,” said Dang, and he gestured. The word DELETE appeared in bright red over the files. The files showed mini detonations as they deleted.

  “No!” Wenqi shouted. “That’s our research.” He turned to stare at Jingfei. “That belongs to the Empire. He can’t delete it.”

  Dang deftly side stepped around Jingfei and slapped Wenqi. He tottered, lost his balance, and would’ve crashed to the floor had the triant not saved him. Jingfei moved like a ghost, in between the space of blinks, she held him.

  “Gather your belongings, Wenqi, Hazou,” Jingfei said. “I will escort you outside.”

  “What’s happening?” Hazou said, staring out from the pits in his eyes.

  Wenqi watched as their lifetime’s work went into the ether. Gone. Forever.

  “He’s just deleted twenty years of our research,” said Wenqi.

  Hazou’s inarticulate cry faded in Wenqi’s mind as he trod out of the place they’d called a second home. His skin numbed against all the stares of his colleagues.

  Wenqi just wanted to die.

  Chapter 6 - Nuan's Gamble

  A cold drizzle swept across High Beijing. It started at the Jade Palace—the highest point of High Beijing—and it swept past the jade stone eye that stared across the entirety of High Beijing with its gaze. The drizzle turned into a heavy rain and drummed against the ornate golden eaves of the Sumptuous Feast Hall where the People’s Favor sat alone poking sullenly at a tray of shark fin skewers; it soared past the dock zones that lay empty of spaceships. The rain built up force and turned into a storm by the time it hit the Mao’s residence where Nuan stood at the front of the porch holding the umbrella over her husband. She adjusted his tie with her right hand and yelped as a gust of wind blew the umbrella from her left hand.

  The rain soaked Nuan as she tightened Dang’s tie and made sure that it cascaded neatly across the midsection of his yellow suit. The half-red and half-yellow tie had a jade dragon in the middle. The dragon glowed dimly as she buttoned his jacket. The rain made Nuan blink. She patted his chest gently once she finished.

  Dang said, “That was good last night wasn’t it?” His calloused hands wrapped her lower back pressing her close. He smelled of the garlic and mushroom noodles she’d prepared for breakfast. She was surprised he’d liked it considering her mind had been on Hazou. She couldn’t use their house’s net connection as Dang monitored it. She couldn’t get a public net kiosk because Dang monitored her movements. But she couldn’t stop thinking of her brother ever since that day Dang had brought the bad news.

  “These are better than mangoes.” Dang reached out and pinched her breasts through the thin fabric of the cheongsam. His lips touched hers and his tongue quested into her mouth.

  Abruptly Dang pushed her away and grabbed the umbrella leaving her to soak against the heavy raindrops. A hard slap on her buttocks sent her sideways into one of the lions that edged the walkway. She almost cried from the pain. After last night she couldn’t even sit.

  “Because of your idiot brother and his mistakes, I’ve got Anastasiya wanting to discuss what’s going to happen with the current set of projects.” A distasteful expression filled his face. “Those two idiots were the leaders of almost every project.”

  The aero-car that landed ten minutes ago opened its gull-wing doors. Dang got under the doors and sat in. He threw the umbrella out.

  “Be ready for tonight. I like that red and gold Cheongsam.” The door shut on his wide jaws but his attention had already turned away to a holo-display he’d called up.

  Nuan spat at the yellow tiles that edged their driveway. She reached for the umbrella and in a sudden fit of rage slammed it against the tiles until it cracked. She flung it away where it stuck against her bonsais like torn bat wings.

  “Mommy,” said the voice.

  As she turned to meet her daughter’s eyes, Nuan hoped she didn’t notice he
r tears.

  “Lizhang, go back inside and change,” Nuan said.

  Her ever-curious daughter of nine years stared from under the eaves of the doorway with an openly curious expression. “It looks all dark.” She inched back slowly as more rain edged the doorway. “Mommy, do you know where my seed box is?” she asked. “We’re doing old science today and I need the seeds.”

  Nuan cupped her daughter’s cheeks. “You go in and change out of your pajamas and I’ll get your seed box. Hurry, we’ve only got fifteen minutes until the aero-bus arrives.”

  “You’re the best!” Lizhang flung herself into her mother’s arms and gave her a hug. She turned around and fled back into the house, her bright blue Stardock Twins pajamas fluttering behind her.

  This is why I stay, she told herself. At least he hasn’t laid his hands on Lizhang. She stared heavenward. Please, People’s Favor, help me, she thought.

  After a hurried breakfast, thirteen minutes later Nuan held her daughter’s hand as they rushed out of the house. The rain had died to a drizzle, but the sky looked black.

  Nuan stopped as if she’d just run into a wall.

  Hazou Sai, her brother, and Wenqi Mu, her brother’s best friend, stood on her porch. All three of them had been childhood friends back in Urumqi City.

  “Nuan, how wonderful to see you,” said Wenqi. The sleeves of his jacket hung loosely down where there should’ve been hands.

  “Sister? Is that you I smell?” said Hazou.

  Nuan’s body shook. She ran and hugged Hazou, holding him close and buried her head in his chest. Tears of relief that her brother lived, mixed with tears of despair of her current situation. Eventually she stood back, her palms pressed against his head tilting it back gently.

  “Oh, what have they done? What have they done?” she kept saying through the tears that slid down her cheeks.

  Hazou’s hands took hers and he gently kissed them. “It’s not only me that was hurt, dear sister.”

  Nuan turned with a hand on her mouth. “Oh, Wenqi. I’m so sorry.” She gently trailed her hands down the empty sleeves where his shoulders, arms, forearms, wrists, and fingers should’ve been. Wenqi stiffened at her touch. She gave him a brief hug and stepped away. For some reason she felt nervous around him.