Model: Scribe (Model Humans Book 2) Read online

  Model:

  Scribe

  Model Human Series

  Model:

  Scribe

  Model Human Series book 2

  Nix Whittaker

  Reshwity Publishers

  https://reshwity.wixsite.com/publishing

  Other books by Nix Whittaker

  Glyph Warrior Series

  Hero is a man

  You can run

  Sorrow also sings

  Blind Leading

  Wyvern Chronicles

  Blazing Blunderbuss

  The Mechanicals

  The Jade Dragon

  Wyvern’s trim and other stories

  Model Human Series

  Model: Serenity

  Wyvern Mysteries

  Lady Golden Hand

  © 2019 by Nicola Pike

  This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical facts, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

  1

  Serenity

  Lying on his bed, Kynaston twirled his lunch above his head without using his hands. He had never had time to develop his Serenity powers while he had been running his father’s business. Over the last few years he had plenty of time with little else to do but focus on his mental powers.

  The peas juggled around in a Mobius strip pattern and interconnected. He added in another pea and beat his best record. A smile touched his lips in a rare expression.

  The timer on his watch went off and Kynaston guided the peas to his plate. Sliding each along like planes on a carrier. Already there were peas that spelt out the word ‘Help’ and his last few peas added on the exclamation point at the end. Every day he spelt something out with his food. Not because he seriously thought anyone would take any heed but because he was bored.

  Today he wasn’t being very imaginative. Usually he spelt out lines of poetry or dirty limericks one word at a time.

  He blamed his boredom on his routine or rather lack of one. No one forced him to do anything. In fact, he was pretty sure everyone but the cook had forgotten he was even alive. There were benefits and disadvantages to his persona non grata status. Unfortunately, endless entertainment wasn’t one. But he was still breathing, at least.

  A buzz from the door signalled for him to expect company and to step back from the door. With a sigh, he rose to his feet and held his arms up as the guard entered. A stunner held loosely in the guard’s hand, away from his body, made sure Kynaston wouldn’t use his powers on the guard. The guard was broad of shoulder but also had sharp mean eyes. Wordlessly he jerked his head to indicate Kynaston was to leave. Kynaston flashed a grin and led the way out of the room. This show of teeth was all calculation though and none of the sincere emotion. This close to the guard Kynaston could get the edges of his thoughts.

  When Kynaston first arrived, there had been an interrogator there almost every day, asking him what he knew of the Serenities and their plans. When asking politely didn’t get what they wanted, they had used violence. Methodical and cold like most Scribes it had taken months before they had changed tactics.

  Complete and abject neglect was their next tactic. Surprisingly effective, in Kynaston’s opinion. Unfortunately, the interrogators had disappeared from his daily routine and weren’t there when he finally broke.

  In the end Kynaston knew more than he had told the interrogators on their last visit. He had given them what they thought he knew. Which was little and nothing they wanted.

  It was really his sister they wanted. He didn’t tell them he was deeper in Serenity politics than his sister had ever been. He had been in contact with his grandmother, Aki, for years. She had reached out to him when she had become Governor of the Serenity city in the fiains. With that power she wanted another set of eyes inside Jing.

  Kynaston asked the guard, “Any news of the world, eh? Who won the game this weekend?” The guard gave him a stony glare and flexed his grip on the stunner. Kynaston skipped ahead. He had learned to respect the stunner.

  He didn’t blame his sister for his current predicament. Certainly didn’t blame her for freeing herself when he was watched more closely because of her freedom. He was an idiot for getting caught in the first place but he wasn’t a complete idiot. He wondered about that some days. He had messed up so bad. Chasing away his family while trying to keep them safe. In the end he hadn’t helped anyone or kept them safe.

  It didn’t matter anymore in any case. His sister was gone, to some city in the fiains while he was imprisoned for the foreseeable future. The precarious nature of all of the political intrigue had its advantage even if it complicated things.

  He fell into a weird limbo zone. Too valuable to kill and too dangerous to release. So, they kept him. Farming him to some random facility that even he didn’t know where he was. The corridors as banal as any research facility on Ardin.

  Eventually they would come for him. Probably to put him out of his misery.

  The guard prodded him through to white pristine corridors. Each identical to the others. Occasionally he would get glimpses of offices through slightly ajar doors. Nothing gave away the purpose of the building though. He knew they were outside of Jing City.

  They stopped at the small courtyard he was allowed to use for exercise. Privacy its only redeeming feature as it was dominated by concrete. Ironically, that privacy now ate at him. The guard took up a position by the entrance of the courtyard. More to keep people out rather than to keep him there.

  Kynaston moved into his workout routine while the guard stood to the side already appearing bored. Kynaston always did the same workout. It wasn’t because he was that rigid in his routine but because he used the time to send his mind over the walls of the courtyard to the rest of the compound. He had mapped the entire compound but he still hadn’t found a way out.

  They shielded his room. They were sure they could stop him using his abilities or at least know when he was using them. Ironically, for people who were very analytic they had avoided finding out exactly how his Serenity powers worked. Not that they were sure he had many. They knew about his kinetic abilities but he hadn’t shown them anything else. Not that his other abilities were anything to write home about.

  His mind needed to touch briefly on others and soak in the connection. Never deep enough to know their thoughts as that really wasn’t one of his talents. But enough that he didn’t go crazy. When he had first been imprisoned, they had let him out around people. That had changed though. He wasn’t entirely sure he was successful in staving off insanity though.

  The security was tight around his own incarceration despite his uselessness. They had apparently learned some things from his sister’s escape as they had redundancies on everything. He could have hacked the keypad on the lock but that wouldn’t get him past the security guard posted outside his door.

  Taking a deep breath, he started his press ups. His mind flitting over the concrete walls and threading into each room between the courtyard and the outside walls. He could feel that there were still people working. Scribes were scattered around the buildings though only a few in the building where he was housed. This building was only busy during daylight hours.

  He didn’t have the power to get into their minds but he could tell by the way they worked they were all Scribes. They were completely focused on their own work to the detriment of others around them. That was a Scribe trait that had allowed them to take over the governance of Ardin from the Serenities even
though Serenities had been supremely powerful though flawed. It was well known that the first Serenities with powers were also prone to madness.

  His mind came to the outside of the building. It was surrounded by fiains. A kupal covered the entire compound with a coded gate and security. Kynaston didn’t bother with looking further and continued on with his workout routine. He had always enjoyed his time working out as it had allowed him time to be alone.

  Now that he was almost always alone the workout had become tedious though he couldn’t argue with the results. He was the fittest he had ever been. He had also been working on his muscles with his Serenity powers. If he had wanted to, he could have taken out his guard who dozed against the wall. But Kynaston also knew there were security measures set up purely for him.

  Kynaston finished up and the guard passed him a water bottle and towel. This too was part of the routine. Kynaston wasn’t sure if he ever would get a chance to escape but he knew pretending to go along would someday pay off if something happened.

  Kynaston’s computer chimed, notifying him of an update for a game. The guard frowned. It had taken a long time to convince the powers-that-be that a simple linked in computer on his wrist wasn’t going to be the end of the world. In the end it hadn’t worked as he had hoped. They had air gapped it and all it really did was tell the time and play a few games.

  He had hoped to hack the security, to get hold of his grandmother and have her break him out like she must have done for his sister. Kynaston swiped away the notification and finished up with the towel, throwing it over his shoulder to saunter back through the corridors to his room. The bravado was only skin deep.

  The door snicked shut behind him and Kynaston held himself still as he gathered himself. To distract himself from the overwhelming and oppressive feeling, he headed for a shower. He was successful for a few minutes but once he had the water running over his head, it all crashed down on him. His breath caught in his chest as he struggled with anxiety. It wasn’t the small bathroom but his life.

  This was his life. Trapped in a small white room. Meals delivered in silence and eaten alone. He doubted there was any way to get out of it at all. His Serenity powers were strong enough that he could cut through the artery on his throat and he could bleed out in no time at all.

  He breathed through the moment, his nails leaving crescent shapes in the palms of his hands. There was always one way to escape.

  He told himself that he would do it tomorrow. Tomorrow. He could survive today. He could take the out tomorrow. He knew he was lying to himself but that was what he needed at this moment. Finishing up his shower he completed his ablutions.

  He had been longer than expected and his evening meal was already laid out for him. He let a half grin touch his lips. Usually he invited the man who brought his food to stay for dinner. Of course, the man never did. Didn’t even say a word. But it was part of their routine.

  Instead, Kynaston said to the empty room, “What? No conversation, George.” He had no idea what the guard’s name was. Kynaston had given all his guards names though none actually answered to any of them.

  Kynaston sat down and gestured grandly. “Stay George. There is plenty for two.” There was. There was one thing he could say about the Scribe’s hospitality. They fed him well even if it was boring. He knew it must be the last day of the week as it was roast. There was even some pudding with the meal.

  He picked up his fork and stopped when that tightness that had attacked him in the shower threatened to consume him again. Holding himself completely still he hoped it would go away, but also scared that if he moved, he might be tempted to use the fork to end his own life. It was getting worse. He didn’t usually have more than one attack in a day and certainly not one so close to his last one.

  2

  Scribe

  The roof whined after Sorcha flicked a switch on the wall to open it. Usually facilities like this had kupals around them but it gave off too much light for the telescope. Instead, they relied on stout walls and guards to keep out the local wildlife. The area was pretty well cleared out, so the guards were mostly for appearance. The telescope though was only one of the devices used to monitor the cosmos.

  The sky made Sorcha think of the endless possibilities. She wondered if the people who had sent them to Ardin had looked at the sky the same way she did. For them though it meant the future of the human race. To Sorcha it was merely her own future.

  Sorcha uploaded the co-ordinates for that night’s observations. Moving on to the other stations she started them up as well even though she was on her own that night. They automated most it in any case.

  She stopped at the console where she really wanted to be. This one was linked to the satellite in orbit above Jing and facing out towards space. She had spent the day looking up past observations for her set co-ordinates. The last time this part of the sky had been observed accurately was almost thirty years before. It seemed whenever it came up for rotation it was somehow missed. Sorcha always did her due diligence and did her homework on her shifts.

  One year they shut the whole observatory for cleaning. Another, there had been an intern on the scope and he had put in the wrong co-ordinates. Once or twice would be a coincidence but to miss a section of space for thirty years was by design. When she had dug deeper, she had discovered a virus buried in the code. Whenever those co-ordinates were entered the telescope no longer auto focused. Sorcha had been brought up by her paranoid father so she had taken all precautions for this night. She had even carefully dropped hints at work that she was snowed under by another project that she hadn’t had time to do her usual checks before her shift.

  She hadn’t brought it up with her colleagues though to be honest she wasn’t close with any of them. They were either afraid of her father or they had wanted something from her father but none of them had approached her for her own academic qualities. That might explain why she always went above and beyond what was expected of her. Though she doubted anyone had noticed. Or it was simply an overcompensation for the fact she wasn’t a keen scientist.

  The caution though had been second nature after finding the virus. If they had gone through the trouble to avoid this part of the sky, they would make sure she never saw it. Especially if what she thought was there was really there. When she had discovered the cover up, there was only one thing she knew the government could be hiding.

  She set up a ghost and had the machines watch a replay of the telescope’s last year’s observation. She had changed a few things that made it seem like it was for this year. Easier as it was set to be blurry from the virus.

  Once Sorcha was sure that was running, she went over to the satellite console and plugged in her own computer. The telescope moved to the section of space she wanted to see. Linked to the satellite it had crisp clear images as it didn’t have to worry about any light on the planet. Her computer though was an old model and hummed with effort as she plugged in commands manually.

  This way she by passed the virus that would make the image blurry. She held her breath as the gears whirred on the antennae and the supplementary telescopes. The image settled and cleared on the screen.

  This wasn’t a new star or a comet. Sorcha sat down heavily on the chair. Her thoughts fogged by the image.

  Three years before there had been an incident when a Serenity had surfaced and revealed she had found out the humans were coming. Real original humans without the tinkering the Model humans had gone through to colonise Ardin. No one had believed her and instead wrote her off as crazy. But after what Sorcha saw on the screen, she knew the woman had been telling the truth.

  There was a ship coming straight for them. It was huge in the focused telescope screen but she knew it was so far away it would take years before it reached Ardin. Her heart beat fast as Sorcha took down images and made sure they were isolated to her computer. She didn’t want this getting out.

  The Scribes had ridiculed the woman who had revealed the ship from Earth. Sorcha k
new that if she revealed what she knew her career was destroyed. Even her father’s power wouldn’t be able to save her.

  There were some advantages to being a politician’s daughter but mostly that was to have the privilege of her father telling her off rather than her direct superior. He had never coddled her and she was grateful for that.

  Once the images were safe, she forced herself to go through her nightly duties as if nothing had happened.

  Leaning back on the chair while the results of the night scrolled over the screen, she thought about the humans arriving. She had contemplated the model humans on Ardin as something different to humans from Earth because she really didn’t see herself as the original. There had been too many changes. Not only to their DNA but also to their culture. The original scientists had made sure any contamination to the Ardin model humans was at a minimum which meant their culture would be different to the one the humans were coming from. Even amongst the Model humans there was little enough variance that anyone could tell apart the different models. She had the wheat blonde hair typical of the Scribes. Her blue eyes were super pale even for Scribes.

  Sorcha worried how the other models would react to the earthborn humans. It wasn’t like they could send the humans back. It would have taken them decades to make the trip. No one had the resources for a return trip in any case. So it meant they would have to share the planet or kill each other. Sorcha worried that her people were convinced that fighting them was the only answer. After all she was familiar with human history. Even the dry version that had been sent out with them.

  When her shift finished, she hadn’t come any closer to knowing what to do or even figuring out what options were actually open to her. But she packed up and pretended that her world hadn’t been completely changed by the truth in the telescope.

  She smiled at the guards in the morning when she left and she was sure they could read on her face that she had something with her that could be dangerous. As she drove down from the observatory to the research centre where she worked during the day, she considered going home to sleep but the revelation kept her on edge, but she needed to know if everyone she worked with was in on the secret. She swung from wanting to yell at the top of her lungs what she had found and hoped that kept her safe or sneaking into everyone’s office to see what she could find.