Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

Tomas looked at her and finally realized the gravity of what she said. No more evolution, in a universe where everything constantly evolved. They would stagnate. It might not matter in the short run, or in the long run as Seo-yun said. But a million years from now, or ten million, they will still be the same, while every other life form in the universe moved on. If they even survived that long. Tomas was by no measure a scientist, but he did go out of his way to learn a few things. Humans were on a certain evolutionary path, constantly changing to adapt to their environment and the way of life. Stopping that evolution would mean that they would lose their ability to adapt over time. They will need to lean on their technology to do that for them.

“Is there anything we can do?” Tomas asked.

“We are already changed, we can’t reverse the treatment, and every newborn after we did this to ourselves inherited it. But a few of my people, the ones who noticed this, did offer possible answer.” Seo-yun said.

“What?”

“Artificial evolution.” Seo-yun said.

Tomas raised an eyebrow, and Seo-yun continued.

“Guided evolution. We enhance ourselves. The agelessness treatment has been really just that, as was the life extension treatment that we had previously. Though with the agelessness we didn’t really think all the aftereffects quite through. But the truth is that we have great knowledge of genetics. It might not seem that way, but our greatest advances are in genetics, and we have mostly achieved them on our own. We have eliminated most diseases and improved our quality of life significantly. We have far surpassed anything we have found in the Union databases. And our knowledge expands constantly. In time we will learn enough to start altering ourselves even more.” Seo-yun said.

“Is that wise? For us to thinker even more?” Tomas asked.

“Perhaps not, but now it is our only choice. We don’t need to do this now of course. But in time, perhaps, it might be the only way for us to survive.” Seo-yun said.

Adrian walked through the Olympus city on his way to the space port. Two hours prior he finished with the last of the interviews for the positions on his ship. Now he only needed to decide which people he wanted. The port was outside the city, two hours on foot, and Adrian decided not to take a grav-car. As he walked, he couldn’t help but think back on the events five days ago and his encounter with Bethany. He spent the day after closed up in his room. He refused all comms, and was planning on staying inside the entire second day as well. Until Paul managed to get inside his room. Seeing as Paul didn’t have the codes to enter, the only way he could have, was if someone who knew gave them to him. Which meant that it was Iris that contacted him. She had free access to every piece of technology in Adrian’s home. After Paul arrived, he proceeded to annoy the hell out of Adrian, until he didn’t have any other choice but to get up, clean himself and assent to their wishes and start the interviews. The next three days he spent interviewing personnel for his new ship. The interviews took over his entire day, so he had no time to feel sorry for himself, as Iris liked to say, and by the time he got home he was so exhausted he would immediately fall asleep. Now finished, he needed to get to the shipyard and familiarize himself with the ship. As Adrian left the city boundaries, he looked around. The immediate area outside the city was a grassy plain. The plain where city resided was surrounded by forest, and for the first time Adrian looked around at the nature surrounding him. Before coming to Olympus he was raised in the city, and afterwards in space. He never had a chance of being in the wilderness. Sanctuary was a beautiful world. As he approached the entrance to the forest, he looked up at the great trees. The leaves swaying gently on the wind. It was an awe inspiring sight, he didn’t realize how big they really were. As he entered the forest, following the simple road going through it, he looked around. The inside of the forest was dark, and the wind made a soft whistling sound. Looking around Adrian felt a touch of fear, until he remembered that Sanctuary had no land predators. Well, only one, but they had never attacked humans. Then an image of a great wolion attacking him came to mind. Perhaps I should have taken a grav-car, Adrian though, Would I be the first human ever to be attacked by them? .

He shook himself, and continued walking. The wolion’s had moved away from human settlements, and always chose to run away. He quickened his pace. After a few minutes with no predators jumping out of the bushes to attack him, he relaxed. And then he heard a yowling sound coming deeper from the forest.

Immediately Adrian froze, he wasn’t sure if he imagined the sound or if it was real.

“Iris? Did you hear that?” Adrian asked, Iris could hear everything Adrian could, through his imp.

“Yes.” She said.

Adrian turned, and tried to see if there was anything, but there was nothing. Slowly he started walking again. He didn’t make two steps before he heard the sound again. On the second hearing, he realized that it sounded like a cry of pain. At the realization he hesitated. He knew that there was wildlife around the city, and those were all small animals, herbivores. Humans tried to interfere as little as possible, but from time to time the animals would wander close to the city, some even coming inside. There was no danger to humans, as none of them dangerous. Not even the one predator species they discovered. So Adrian decided to investigate. He set in the direction of the sound, adjusting his path as he heard more yowling. Two minutes later he came upon a shrub beneath one of the trees, surrounded by roots. Below the shrub was a recess in the earth, it looked to Adrian as if it was dug out recently. Confirming his reasoning was the beast lying inside.

“That’s a wolion.” Iris said unnecessarily. Adrian already recognized the animal. It was lying on its side, with its legs pulled protectively around its middle, and its head turned straight towards Adrian. The animal was almost invisible, its blue fur melting into the teal of the bush in the shadows of the forest. Though no one would miss it this close. Its head had a gray streak going between its eyes, meaning that it was a female. The animal was breathing heavily, obviously in pain. Its dark gray eyes were bloodshot, and there was slime around its nostrils. Its great head started to drop, and its eyes slowly started to close. Adrian took a step forward, and immediately the animal raised its head, its eyes opening and started to growl. Adrian froze, he didn’t move for a count of ten, and the wolion again dropped its head. “She is dying.” Adrian told Iris.

“Yes, I don’t think that she has long left.”

Adrian drew closer, the wolion tried to growl again, but it came out only as a gasp. Her breathing intensified as he grew closer.

“She is scared of you Adrian.”

Adrian started making placating sounds. “It’s okay girl. I’m not going to hurt you.” He said as he drew even closer. Two steps and he was close enough to touch her. He extended his hand and touched the wolion’s snout. It tried to move but was too weak. He made circular motions softly patting the animal, until she calmed down. A minute later she stopped trying to move, whether from exhaustion or because she now trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her Adrian didn’t know. He kept stroking her snout, not knowing what to do. They didn’t know anything about wolions, so he didn’t know anyone who could treat her and save her life. And he realized that even if there was, help would come too late. A quick search with his imp and he knew that the veterinarian was on the other side of the city, he would need to come with a grav-car, and even if he started immediately he would still take more than half an hour to get here. And Adrian could see that the animal was on her last stretch, she would die any moment. So he decided that the least he could do was stay there with her until she died. Then he heard another little yelp, and for a moment he thought that it was coming from her, but the second one brought Adrian’s attention to the wolion’s middle, the sound was coming from her middle, behind her limbs. As soon as he realized what that meant, he felt the wolion going stiff. Adrian turned his eyes to hers, he found that she was looking straight at him, studying him. Her eyes were beautiful, even though they were bloodshot. Eerie silver in color, Adrian realized that they had eyes similar to humans, meaning that they had a circular pupil. All four eyes were focusing on Adrian, and Adrian found himself lost in them for a moment. The more he looked, the stranger he felt. In an instant it felt as if he could feel the wolion’s pain, but it passed quickly. Adrian felt dizzy and a soft pressure built behind his eyes. The wolion moved its legs revealing what it was hiding. And then in the next moment the pressure was gone, as was the wolion. It let out a long breath and died. Adrian looked down at two small creatures, they looked like little puppies, and from the look of them, he knew that they hadn’t been in this world yesterday. They were keening and putting their little paws on their mother, their little snouts hitting her belly. One of them had a little gray streak between her closed eyes. Adrian took off his jacket and reached down, he gathered them in it and lifted the up. They barely weighted anything.