All Or Nothing (Continued)

Chapter 7

“Everywhere we go, we hear the same complaints,” Apsu said into his wrist device. He was sitting in a shuttle just outside of one of the mining camps. “leg pain and back pain. They look at me as if I should have some answers, but I’m not a doctor. I don’t know what to tell them.”

“The medics from the camps have been requesting a lot of pain medications, back braces, splints, and boots for stress fractures.” Tiamat’s voice came from Apsu’s universal device. “Until their bodies adjust to the stronger gravity, pain medication for over-worked muscles, splints for stress fractures, and back braces are all we can do. Speaking of, how are you holding up?”

“If you mean am I having any pain, no. But I’m not lugging around tools and buckets of dirt and gold.”

“No pain is good. How are you otherwise?”

“Wishing I was home. I’ll be happy when I’m done with these inspections. I’ve been down here too long.”

“I knew you’d be there a while. There are thirty camps, so I expected it would take a few weeks.” She paused. “But I wish you were here. I don’t enjoy sleeping alone.”

“Me neither,” Apsu said, noticing movement outside the shuttle. “It looks like Tolk is heading this way. Finally, he’s ready to head to the next camp.”

“I have to get back to work, Apsu. Take care of yourself. Love you. Tiamat out.”

“I love you too. Apsu out.”

Admiral Tolk opened the side door of the shuttle, stepped inside, made his way to the front, and took the seat next to Apsu.

“What are all these secret talks you keep having with the miners?” Apsu asked.

“Captain, some things are ‘need to know’--”

“Admiral, if it has anything to do with this mission, I need to know.”

The Admiral looked thoughtful. “OK, I am instructing the miners to set back one-fourth of the gold for Prince Kuru.”

“But you agreed on one-third,” Apsu said.

“How is Prince Kuru going to know the difference? It’s not like he can send in spies. We would spot a blue-skinned spy,” Tolk said in a tone that revealed his contempt for the race of blue outsiders.

“You’re going to start a war,” Apsu growled. Until now, Apsu had held Admiral Tolk in the highest regards, but now he was seeing a side of the Admiral he wouldn’t have guessed existed.

“Only if he finds out, and I don’t plan on ever letting him find out. Is that clear, Captain?” Tolk gave Apsu a stern look.

“Yes, sir,” Apsu said through gritted teeth.

“Good, now let’s head to the next camp.”

Apsu laid in the coordinates for the next camp. His mood, until now, had been irritable, but now, with this new knowledge, his mood had changed to volatile. He wished he could get away from these abysmal inspections. If only Tiamat could come up with a reason to call him home.

*****

The senior geneticist, Enki, walked into the Med-Bay.

“Officer Tiamat, may I have a word with you?” he asked.

“Sure, what do you need?” A geneticist visiting a Med-Bay was rare. She assumed he must be ill.

“I would like to conduct some research, but I need your okay because of the scope of the experiment.”

“Okay, what is this research?”

“I want to study gene manipulation between Anunnaki DNA and the DNA of one of the hominid species on Tellus to create a creature more suited to the gravity of this planet and smart enough to be trained to do the heavy work for the minors.” Enki smiled meekly.

“You want to what?” Tiamat could not believe what she had just heard.

“People are suffering injuries because of the extra pull from the stronger gravity. We weren’t made for this planet and it’s wreaking havoc on the minor’s bodies,” Enki said. Enki was a short, thin, balding man. What hair he had left formed a short, graying Caesar-like crown on his head.

“Is it even possible? You’re talking about two entirely different species here,” Tiamat couldn’t believe she was seriously talking about gene splicing.

“I already talked to Anu, and he said if you agreed, Ninki and I could go ahead with the experiments.”

“You went over my head?” Tiamat was angry.

“Not exactly,” Enki said, “you have to agree or we can’t proceed.”

“I can’t decide this right now. I need some time to think this over.” Tiamat felt like the weight of the world dropped on her shoulders. “I’ll get back to you on this.”

“Fair enough. I’ll be waiting for your answer,” Enki said. He hurried out of the room on his way to who knows where.

Tiamat needed to talk to Anu.

She stepped out of the lab and walked down the hallway toward the elevator. If they do this, it will either turn out exceptionally well or horribly badly, she thought, pushing the elevator button. Stepping inside the elevator, she pushed the button for the top floor, the floor of Anu, the Chief Executive Officer. She was going to have a word with him.

Stepping out of the elevator, she could see Anu’s office directly in front of her. His office took up nearly half of the top floor. When she reached the door, an alert sounded to let Anu know that someone was there. Tiamat heard a buzzing noise, and the door slid open.

“Tiamat,” Anu cheerfully greeted her, “I was expecting you.” Anu was a large, middle-aged man with blue eyes and sandy blonde hair.

“And you’re happy to see me?”

“Of course, come on in.” Anu gestured with his hand for her to come closer.

“How could you dump this thing on me like that?” Tiamat was angry. She stepped forward and leaned on Anu’s desk so she could look into his eyes. “What, didn’t you have the balls to decide for yourself? It’s not like you need an OK from me. So tell me exactly why you put the responsibility on me.”

Anu put his hand up as to say stop. “Whoa now,” Anu said, obviously taken aback. “First, I dumped nothing on you. Let’s get that clear. I don’t know why Enki came to me instead of you. He jumped the chain of command and I told him to talk to you because that’s what he should have done.”

“He said you gave the okay for the experiments.”

“I told him he had to talk to you since he should have gone to you, not me.”

“Did you tell him the choice was up to me?” Tiamat felt confused. She wasn’t sure now if she had the right to be angry.

Anu stood and walked around the desk. He gently took hold of Tiamat’s shoulders. “Daughter, if I did, it’s because I trust your judgment, not because I was ball-less.” Anu smiled at Tiamat.

Tiamat chuckled. “Ball-less,” she repeated. “I just felt like you had cornered me.”

“I can see how it would look that way.” Anu strolled over to his cellarage cabinet and poured himself a drink. “Do you want one?” He asked, holding up a glass.

“No, thank you.”

“What did you decide? Are they going ahead with the experiments?”

“I didn’t decide yet. It’s too big. What are they expecting to make?” Tiamat’s mind was racing, and she felt slightly light-headed.

“I believe their idea is to make smarter apes they can train to mine.”

“That’s right, Enki told me,” Tiamat nodded. “The minors are having a lot of difficulty with the gravity. Their bodies aren’t holding up under the strain. Should I tell Enki to go ahead?” Tiamat looked disturbed. “Would that be the right thing?”

“Tiamat, the position we, the Anunnaki, are in has obscured the lines between right and wrong.” Anu looked contemplative. “If the minors are having serious problems with the gravity --”

“You think I should say yes?” Tiamat’s head was hurting.

“I will not tell you what to do.”

Tiamat let out an exasperated breath and walked from the room. I need to talk to Apsu; she thought.

*****

“Apsu,” Tiamat was calling on his universal device.

“Tell me you have an emergency,” Apsu’s voice sounded strained.

“I have something I need to talk to you about and it needs to be in person,”

“Yes,” Apsu said excitedly.

“It’s big and I seriously need your advice.”

“I’ll be there right away.”

Apsu ran to the tent the camp leader had given Admiral Tolk for his stay. He burst into the tent, out of breath.

“Admiral, I need to go home right now. It’s an emergency!”

“What kind of emergency?” Tolk asked as he sat up. He had been resting in his bunk.

“She didn’t go into detail, but it’s urgent.”

“I see. Take the shuttle. I’ll do the inspection on this camp myself. I expect you to return ASAP.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” Apsu took off running at top speed for the shuttle. He could hardly wait to see Tiamat.

*****

Apsu and Tiamat sat on their sofa facing each other.

“Enki, he’s a geneticist, wants to do a gene spicing experiment with a hominid species on Tellus and us,” Tiamat informed Apsu.

“What, that’s crazy,” Apsu said. “Is that even possible?”

“That’s what I said, but Enki thinks he can do it.”

“And the purpose of this is to…”

“Create ‘smart apes’ that can do all the heavy lifting for the minors.”

“You have to OK this or they can’t do it, right?”

“That’s my dilemma.”

“Could you get any closer to playing God?” Apsu almost whispered this.

“So, you think I should say no?”

Apsu shook his head. “I saw firsthand what the minors are going through.” Apsu began. “The gravity of Tellus is causing damage to their bodies. They won’t be able to keep it up.”

Tiamat nodded. Apsu gently put a hand on one of her shoulders.

“I will not tell you what to do, but the minors are in terrible shape. If this is possible, --”

“Okay, for the sake of the minors I will give the go-ahead.” Tiamat felt somewhat relieved to have decided. “We have to do whatever we can to survive. It has to be all or nothing with this mission.”

*****

In the Captain’s ready room, Mummu and Apsu sat across the desk from each other discussing what Tiamat had told Apsu about the gene-splicing experiment.

“They are going to take ape DNA and put it together with our DNA?” Mummu asked

“That’s the general idea, yes,” Apsu said, nodding.

Mummu shook his head. “I can’t see anything going wrong with that,” he said, his voice infused with sarcasm.

“If we weren’t in this desperate situation, I would have thought differently.” Apsu stood, walked around the desk, and placed his hand on Mummu’s shoulder. Mummu looked up at Apsu. “We need this gold, and there’s not much I wouldn’t do to get it.”

“I understand,” Mummu said, standing and returning the gesture. “I got your back, don’t worry.”

“Thanks.” Apsu smiled.

Just then, a communication alert sounded on Apsu’s computer.

“Now what?” Apsu grumbled, returning to the other side of the desk and tapping the holographic computer screen to open the communication. It was Admiral Tolk. Apsu slid into his chair.

“Captain, I trust you have had time to sort out whatever emergency pulled you away from inspections.” Admiral Tolk’s demeanor was stern.

“Yes, sir. Uh, sir, I was hoping since there were only a few inspections left, I might not have to return,” Apsu said hopefully.

“We started this job together. We will finish it together. Get yourself down here.”

“Yes, sir.” Apsu tapped the computer screen and let out a long woeful moan.

“Why do you hate inspections so much?” Mummu asked.

“When I became a Captain I swore,” Apsu paused for effect. “I swore I would not become one of those hard-ass Captains always up in your face about every little thing. Inspections are for hard ass Captains, not me.”

“I see.” Mummu drew out the I.

“Inspections force me to be what I hate.” Apsu swung his chair around and stood. “You’ve got Conn.” He said as he solemnly walked out of the ready room.

*****

Tiamat stood outside the bio-genetics lab. What if this is wrong? She thought. What if I okay this and we end up with some kind of monster? “What if, what if, what if?” she said to herself, stepping through the door.

“Chief Medical Officer Tiamat,” Enki greeted her excitedly. “How nice to see you. Does this mean you have an answer for us?”

“Yes, I do. After giving it much thought, I decided you should go forward with your research.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful.” Enki turned around toward the other person in the lab. “Ninki, did you hear that?”

Ninki had a broad smile on her face, her pale gray eyes beaming with joy. She was a frail-looking woman with shock-white hair tied up in a bun. Her lab coat looked two sizes too large. She scampered over to Tiamat.

“Oh thank you, ma’am.” She grasped Tiamat’s hand and pumped her arm up and down.

“Just don’t make me regret this decision,” Tiamat said, taking her hand back.

“We won’t, I promise,” Enki answered.

“Just remember, this entire mission is to save our planet. To save us. All of us.” Tiamat was already regretting her decision.

“That’s the point, ma’am,” Ninki said. “We can’t do this ourselves. Our people need help. So we will use hominid DNA spliced with our DNA and create a smart ape strong enough to do the work for the minors and easy to train.”

“How do you plan on making enough for every camp?” Tiamat held her hand up. “Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

“Artificial wombs,” Enki chimed in with a broad grin.

“Don’t worry, we have it all planned out,” Ninki gave Tiamat a reassuring smile.

“When someone tells me ‘don’t worry, that’s when I worry.” Tiamat turned and walked out of the bio-genetics lab. She wanted to go home and curl up beside Apsu’s warm body and pretend they were still on Ma’adim before the war. Before the ‘planet killer’ weapon had left its horrendous scar across the face of the planet. But Apsu wasn’t home. He was off to finish inspections with Admiral Tolk, which meant she would be alone again.

“What a nightmare,” she said to herself as she stepped into the elevator. She pushed the button for the ground floor. I am going home and drinking some strong alcohol until I pass out, she thought.

All Or Nothing, An Anunnaki Story - Chapter 8

Tiamat strode down the hallway toward the bio-genetics lab. After four months of hearing nothing from Enki and Ninki, she decided it was time to pay them a visit and get an update on their progress. Since she hadn’t heard from them, she was assuming in this case no news meant no progress.

Stepping through the doorway to the lab, she saw Enki and Ninki bent over a table, working on something. Even though she couldn’t see what it was, she could tell by their conversation it was something directly connected it to the research. They both looked up at her at the same time. They were wearing surgical masks and medical face shields. As they stood to greet her, she glimpsed what was on the table.

“Oh, good lord!” Tiamat exclaimed, appalled. On the table between Enki and Ninki was a horribly deformed fetus. It was small enough to fit in her palm, and it was still alive, barely. “How many?” she asked.

“This was the first to develop into a fetus. We ended the experiment because of the deformities,” Enki answered.

“But it’s still moving,” Tiamat said.

“Not for long,” Ninki replied. “We just gave it a shot to euthanize it.” As Ninki spoke, the movements of the deformed creature stopped.

“I came to get an update. I guess I got one.” The sight of the fetus tormented Tiamat. She tried to avoid looking at it.

“This was our first successful germination,” Enki stated.

“You consider this a success?” Tiamat’s head was swimming.

“What did you think was going to happen?” Ninki asked, perturbed. “It’s not like we have an instruction book for splicing ape and Anunnaki DNA.”

“Ninki, please,” Enki motioned for Ninki to be quiet. Out of the two, Ninki was the outspoken one. “Ma’am, if I may explain. This process is exceedingly difficult. So for we have found 150 combinations that produce nothing and one that grew. We will study it and learn from it what we did wrong. Then, armed with that knowledge, we will try again.” Enki managed a weak smile.

“This was a terrible idea. I wish I hadn’t okayed it.” Tiamat said.

“But you did,” said Ninki angrily. “If this upset you so bad maybe you shouldn’t have just dropped in on us like that. For future reference, if we have something good to report, we will let you know.”

“You’re lucky you’re not military,” Tiamat shot back, shaking a finger at Ninki.

“Please, stop,” Enki said, motioning for them both to calm down. “It was unfortunate that you had to witness the termination of this --,” Enki motioned to the fetus. “But we need to do this. Since this was so upsetting to you, let me contact you when we have a viable subject.”

Enki was a good mediator. Tiamat’s anger quickly subsided, and she nodded her head. “This needs to be done, and I will wait to hear from you.” She hurried from the lab, then to the elevator. If her mother had still been alive, she would have gone to her, but as it was, she needed her father.

As soon as Anu saw her, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I wish I could unsee it. It was awful.” Tiamat was nearly in tears.

“What are you talking about?”

“Enki’s experiment. I walked in on them working on it. They were euthanizing it because of how deformed it was.”

“Oh, I see.” Anu stood and went to Tiamat. The big man wrapped his arms around his daughter. Tiamat snuggled into his hug. His hugs were soft and warm, and she always felt safe when wrapped in his arms. “That seems like the appropriate thing to do, it being badly deformed,” Anu offered.

“I wish I hadn’t seen it. Now I have to wonder how many deformed ones will there be before he gets it right?”

Anu pulled back and took Tiamat’s hands. His hands totally engulfed hers. He pulled her hands up to his mouth and kissed them. “Try not to think about it. Let Enki worry about his experiment and you worry about your own problems.”

“Isn’t it my problem? I gave the okay.”

Anu let go of Tiamat’s hands and walked over to pour himself a drink. Holding up a glass, he said, “Want one?”

“Yes, I think I could use one.” Tiamat walked over and took the glass her father offered her. Anu poured her a drink. Tiamat drank deeply from the glass.

“You gave the okay, yes.” Anu took a drink from his glass. “Now, it is in Enki’s hands. Leave it there. This needs to be done. Put it from your mind.”

Tiamat looked down at her glass, then raised it to her mouth and emptied it with a few deep gulps. “You’re right.” She huffed. “You’re always right.”

“That’s why I’m paid the big bucks.” Anu smiled and winked.

“Thanks, Dad, I feel better.” Tiamat smiled back.

“Any time.”

Feeling slightly better, she returned to Med-bay 1.

*****

Apsu sat straight up in his chair when he heard the alert from his computer. There was an incoming message from Admiral Tolk. Now what? he thought, tapping the holographic screen.

“Captain, I have received reports from several cargo ship pilots. Unfamiliar craft has intercepted them and scanned their cargo holds. I suspect Prince Kuru.”

“I knew it,” Apsu muttered under his breath.

“Say that again.”

“Admiral, with all due respect, I told you not living up to our side of the agreement was going to cause trouble.” Apsu took a deep breath. “They must have technology that lets them see what is in the cargo holds. He’s going to figure out he’s not getting the amount he’s supposed to.”

“That’s why I’m calling. If he contacts you, send him to me and I’ll deal with him.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tolk, out.”

Apsu had a sick feeling in his stomach. He told no one about what Tolk was doing with the gold, not paying Prince Kuru the agreed amount, and it was weighing on him heavily. He needed to do something physical to burn off some of his anger with Tolk. As he left his ready room, he told Mummu he had Conn then continued to the elevator. There was a gym on the same floor as the game room, and that was his destination. He rented a locker in the gym, so he didn’t have to carry a gym bag back and forth all the time. He went to his locker, changed his clothes, noting that he needed to take them home to wash them this time, then made a beeline for the punching bag. After putting on the gloves, he pounded the punching bag, imagining the punching bag was Admiral Tolk. Apsu pummelled the heavy bag with all his might, breaking into a sweat and punching it until he barely had any strength left in his arms. Finally, his anger spent, he stepped away from the bag, leaned forward, and placed his gloved hands on his knees, panting.

“I would hate to be the one who brought that on,” Apsu heard a familiar voice behind him. It was Lieutenant Anshar.

“How long were you standing there?” Apsu felt uncomfortable thinking she had been watching him.

“Not long. I wanted to use it next and was coming over to see how much longer you would be, then realized you needed it more than I did.”

“It was that obvious?”

“Mm-hmm, you’re not the only one who takes your anger out on that thing.” She motioned toward the punching bag. “It’s a common occurrence.”

“Oh, I see. After a while, it’s easy to spot.”

“Right.”

“Well, I’m done, so it’s all yours. Vent away.” Apsu pulled off the boxing gloves and handed them to Lieutenant Anshar.

“Thank you.” Lieutenant Anshar said as she pulled the gloves on.

Apsu checked the time on his wrist device. It was late enough that he was going to call it a day, but first, he would drop in on Tiamat.

*****

Tiamat looked up from her work to see Apsu standing in the doorway, looking forlorn.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“I have had the worst day.” Apsu stepped into the room.

“Me too. Do you want to compare notes over dinner at a restaurant I just heard of?” Tiamat walked over to Apsu and placed her hands on his chest. “It’s supposed to be fantastic.”

Apsu nodded. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

They left the building, caught a taxi, and before long were at the restaurant. The maitre d’ led them to a table and told them someone would soon be there to take their orders. Apsu sat across the small table from Tiamat.

Apsu leaned forward. “So, tell me what happened today.”

Tiamat sighed. “I’m regretting my decision to let Enki go ahead with the gene-splicing experiment.”

“Why what happened?” Apsu looked concerned.

“I accidentally saw his first so-called success. It was horrible.” Tiamat shook her head, trying to force the image from her mind. “The fetus was so misshapen it barely even looked like a baby.”

“Oh, no! I’m sorry you had to see that.” Apsu covered her hand with his. Tiamat responded by taking hold of his hand.

“What ruined your day?” Tiamat asked, thinking it couldn’t have been as bad as hers.

“Did I ever tell you about Prince Kuru?”

“No.”

“Well, Prince Kuru is the leader of a race of blue-skinned people. They were here before we arrived. There’s been tension between Kuru and Tolk.” Apsu took a deep breath. “Long story short, Tolk agreed to pay Kuru one-third of the gold we mine, but he has only been giving him one-fourth.” Apsu paused. “Kuru’s been scanning our cargo ships.”

Suddenly, a deformed baby seemed like the least of their worries. Tiamat asked, “Do you think he will figure out that he’s being cheated?”

“It’s only a matter of time.”

“Then what?”

Apsu gave her a grave look. “I can only think of one way this will end.” He looked directly into her eyes. “War.”

(To Be Continued)

Read Chapter 9 here:

https://vocal.media/fiction/all-or-nothing-io6uh40c1z