Alex Scarrow - Time Riders

‘That’s a… that’s a human foetus! Isn’t it?’ said Maddy,stepping towards it and peering closely through the glass. Liam and Sal joined her.

‘Prenatal phase. That one is in pre-growth stasis. It’ll remain like that untilwe need it.’

‘Here,’ he said, standing by the next tube along, ‘we have one that is approximately one third of the way through the growthcycle.’

They looked into the murky water of the second tube to see what appeared to be a boy ofeleven or twelve years of age, hairless, naked and tucked into a similar foetal curl. Like thefoetus, umbilical cords connected to it and curled down to the bottom and up to the top of thecylinder.

Liam found himself recoiling at the sight. Horrified, disgusted and curious at the sametime.

‘That’s not a real boy in there… isit?’

‘No, it’s an artificial,’ Foster said. ‘Grown from engineered humangenetic data.’

Liam shrugged. The word ‘genetic’ meant absolutely nothing to him, but he wasreassured by Foster’s answer that he wasn’t looking at a real child floating like a pickled egg in a vinegar jar. He leaned closer to get abetter look at the still form of the boy.

And then its eyes suddenly snapped open.

2001, New York

‘Oh Jayzus!’ Liam blurted as he and the girls lurched backwards inhorror.

‘It’s OK,’ said Foster. ‘It’s OK. It’s not going to leapout and get you.’

All three of them gathered their breath. Sal giggled nervously. Maddy shook her head.‘Oh my God, it’s like something out of Aliens .’

They watched in silent fascination as the boy’s eyes slowly swivelled round to look atthem through the murky fluid.

‘I think it’s seen us,’ said Maddy.

‘Yes,’ replied Foster, ‘it’s seeing us, but there’s nointelligence there. The body’s motor responses are handled by a small organic brain atthis stage. It has the brain capacity of a mouse. Real cognitive processing, in otherwords… thinking , that’s incorporated later whenthey’re nearly full term.’

The boy’s mouth opened and closed silently.

‘Is it trying to talk?’ whispered Sal.

‘No. That’s just a reflex action.’

Liam watched the cloudy liquid drift in and out of the boy’s open mouth. ‘How canit breathe?’

‘Oxygenated liquid solution. It’s breathing the liquid into its lungs, just likewe breathe air.’

Liam shuddered at the thought of that. ‘But that must feel just likedrowning.’

Foster nodded. ‘I suppose it would feel like that if you were unused to it. But thisunit has known no different.’

The boy in the tube cocked his head.

‘Jahulla!’ gasped Sal, leaping back. ‘Did you see that?’

Maddy stepped closer to the glass tube. ‘Are you sure it’s not… youknow… thinking ?’

Foster nodded. ‘Trust me. There isn’t enough brain matter in there to think . Yes, it’s awake and looking at us, but it’s notwondering who we are.’

She shook her head. ‘It looks just like a normal little boy. That doesn’t seemright to me.’

‘Come on,’ said Foster. ‘We’re here to meet yourcolleague.’

With some difficulty he managed to drag them away from the boy in the tube, past a couple oftubes covered over with a tarpaulin.

‘What’s in there?’ asked Liam.

Foster shook his head. ‘Mis-growths. I’ll need to flush them sometime.’

‘Mis-growths?’

‘Ones that didn’t turn out quite right. It happens from time to time.’

Sal started to lift the canvas and peek under, before Foster stepped forward and pulled thetarpaulin back down. ‘Probably best if you don’t look,Sal. Inside these tubes is the stuff of nightmares.’

‘Oh,’ muttered Sal.

‘Here,’ said Foster, ‘this is your colleague.’ He pointed towards thelast tube. Like the others it was full of murky organic soup, but this time, through thefloating clouds of debris, they could see a fully grown man.

‘Gosh!’ uttered Maddy. ‘It’sfreaking…’

‘Well built?’

She nodded. Liam studied the creature inside. He was easily six, maybe seven, feet tall,broad shouldered, every part of his stocky frame wrapped with well-defined, bulky muscles.Liam was reminded of a book by a woman called Mary Shelley. The story was about a monsterraised from the dead by a mad old man called Frankenstein.

‘It looks like some kind of superhero,’ whispered Sal in awe.

‘Uh… it looks very strong, so it does,’ said Liam warily, guessing how muchdamage just one of those huge hands could do. ‘Are you sure it’ll behave itself,Mr Foster?’

The old man laughed. ‘Oh, don’t worry, Liam, you couldn’t hope for a morereliable colleague.’

‘Does this one have the brain of a mouse too?’

‘Yes. But it also has a silicon neural net processor unit and a wafer-plex data storageunit inserted into its cranium.’

Liam looked at Foster, bemused by the gobbledegook. ‘A silly-con new…what?’

‘A computer in its head,’ cut in Sal.

Liam, none the wiser, turned to Sal. ‘A what?’

She sighed and cocked a dark eyebrow. ‘You really are from 1912, aren’tyou?’

‘It’s a machine that lets the unit store information, Liam,’ said Foster.‘Lots and lots of it. In that skull is a small block of circuitry that we can fit morefacts into than a hundred libraries full of books.’

Liam’s jaw dropped. ‘How’s that possible?’

Foster waved a dismissive hand. ‘That’ll have to come another time. The historyof computers is another whole subject, and one we don’t have time for right now.’He stepped towards a panel on the side of the tube. ‘This unit’s been full term for a while now — waiting its turn. So, let’s not keep itwaiting any longer, eh? Stand well back… This stuff really smells.’

He punched a button. The bottom of the perspex tube swivelled open, releasing a flood tide ofthe thick liquid on to the floor. It splattered and spread — a large viscous steamingpool of gunk that smelled appalling, like meat gone bad. The creature inside flopped outthrough the bottom on to the floor, loose and lifeless like a large twist of boiledtagliatelle.

‘It’s dead,’ said Sal.

‘No, it’s booting up ,’ replied Foster.‘Give it a moment.’

They watched in silence as the warm foul-smelling liquid steamed on the floor. Liam notedwith some relief that it was draining away through a grille in the middle of the floor.

Then the naked form twitched.

Maddy and Sal gasped.

‘That’s a good boy,’ whispered Foster. ‘Come on now.’

The muscles flexed and rippled down its back as it slowly stirred to life. After a few groggyseconds it pulled itself up on bulging arms, as thick as any normal person’s thighs,until it kneeled on its hands and knees.

The creature’s gaze slowly drew up from the floor and rested on them.

Liam could see in the thing’s grey eyes the twinkling of something that looked like anawakening intelligence. The clone opened its mouth and vomited out a river of thick pink goothat splattered on to the floor.

Maddy made a face. ‘Ewww.’

Sal curled her lip. ‘Oh, that’s totally jahully gross.’

‘Has it just been sick?’ asked Liam.

‘No, it’s emptying the liquid out of its lungs.’

It gurgled for a moment, the sort of sound a contented baby might make aftera feed. Finally, its mouth struggled slowly to form what appeared to be a clumsy and awkwardversion of a friendly smile.

‘Ba-a… gagah… bub… glah…?’ it uttered.

2066, New York

Kramer finished erecting the wire cage, tightening the last of the bolts holding ittogether before standing back to look at it.