Eden's Angels - Gary Beene

A Sci-Fi Book Series Set In Alien-Controlled Earth

Eden's Angels by Gary Beene

Series Excerpt

Ramuell had grieved deeply when his parents failed to return from what was to have been a short-term survey expedition. For the next sixty-two annum he was raised by his adoring grandmother, but he remained haunted by Dr. Althea’s and Professor Egan’s mysterious disappearance. His fond memories were images of shared activities and events during the nine annum they had together. He could remember the way they looked but was unable to recall the sound of their voices. He had long since accepted the likelihood they were lost in another dimension or another time or perhaps dead.

Even given this heartbreak, Ramuell fervently hoped to someday travel aboard a 4D-Initiator ship. Being so young, he’d resigned himself to waiting a few more decades. Youth under the age of ninety were almost never allowed on Anotas-Deithe interstellar missions.

One evening Ramuell’s grandmother, Kadeya, announced that her assignment to the planet Ghrain-3 had been approved. She was thrilled. Ramuell was mortified. He loved studying at the Institute of Science, Math, and Literature, but the idea of living on-campus for the next twenty annum was not appealing.

Toying with the beaded headband that kept her curly thick white hair almost in check, Kadeya looked at Ramuell and said, “Guess who’s coming with me.”

The lanky, auburn-haired boy launched out of his chair as if a rocket had been sewn in his pants. They hugged, laughed, and did a do-si-do around the kitchen.

The very next day Ramuell began reading everything he could find about Ghrain-3, the third planet orbiting a G class yellow star. He found quite a lot of information from the early surveys of the solar system and planet, but most information about recent work on Ghrain-3 was classified and available only to those with high-level security clearances.

A brief note in one report completely baffled him:

Genetic manipulation experiments to create vesicular monoamine transporters were suspended after certain enigmatic mutations were produced in the targeted species. Extensive interventions may be required to rectify the unanticipated results.

Frustrated with his inability to access clarifying information, Ramuell badgered his grandmother incessantly. Exasperated, Kadeya closed off any further discussion of the matter. “Look, under no circumstances will I discuss classified information with an excited seventy-one-annum-old boy. Can you imagine how much trouble we’d be in if you let even a peep slip while bragging to your friends? And yes, I know you’ll be bragging—I was once a kid too you know!”

A taller-than-average female, Kadeya towered over her seated grandson. Gesticulating with her long left hand she added, “Only after we’ve made the jump and are out of contact with the homeworld will I discuss this matter with you again!”

***

Kadeya and Ramuell embarked on their adventure from the Nexo de Mando 4D terminal. Some two hours after launch into orbit, the 4D Initiator device was activated and the ship hurtled across a barrier between dimensions in the multiverse.

Kadeya led Ramuell to the ship’s lounge after the jump. They drank tea sweetened with fruit juice and laced with a mild phenothiazine antiemetic. Both of them had experienced what was known as “the stretch.” It’s the sensation one’s body is expanding then contracting during the interdimensional jump. Even wearing sensory deprivation suits, many people still felt a bit wrung out after jumping.

Neither Ramuell nor his grandmother felt horrible, but they didn’t feel great either. They were lying back on reclining chairs and watching a comic movie as they sipped their medicine-laced tea. Several other passengers joined them in the lounge. Some watched the movie and others sat at a hexagonal table playing small-stakes games with gambling cards.

Later they went to their shared cabin. Ramuell flopped down on his bunk and once again began pestering his grandmother about what they were likely to find on Ghrain-3. Kadeya grabbed a pillow from her bed and affectionately, albeit not too gently, stuffed it between her grandson’s back and the wall. Ramuell wriggled around to make himself comfortable. His long legs dangled off the side of the bed.

Kadeya eased herself into the cabin’s only chair and pulled the tiny tea table up as a footrest. With an amused expression, she studied Ramuell. There was no known technology for transmitting communication signals from ships traveling within the interdimensional neutrino streams, so she now felt safe speaking freely with her grandson.

“I believe one of the main reasons so much information about Ghrain-3 has been classified has more to do with what we’ve learned about ourselves than what we’ve learned about the planet. There was a time during the early days of our interventions with alien species that the secrecy was absolute; releasing classified information was punishable by a life-sentence of exile on Tine-4.

“Over the centuries, tens of thousands of people have worked on other worlds. At some point when a very large number of people know a secret, it ceases to be a secret. That’s what happened with much of the classified information about our genetic manipulation experiments. Today almost everyone takes this information for granted.”

“Not everyone,” Ramuell interrupted. “There are a lot of cultists.”

Kadeya waved her hand dismissively and continued, “Never mind them—a bunch of ignorant reactionaries. The decision to genetically fast-forward the evolution of other species was made more than a thousand annum before I was born. Unlike the cultists, I’ve taken the time to actually read about that history. The people of my great-grandparent’s generation didn’t make the decision lightly.

“It was hypothesized, using credible scientific models, that our own genetic makeup may have been manipulated by some unknown spacefaring species in the distant past. The evidence was convincing enough to persuade a significant majority of that era’s decision-makers that not only was genetic enhancement a justifiable undertaking, it might even be our obligation to sentient life throughout the cosmos.

“You know, Ramuell, we are such an extraordinary species. We love life. We can produce extraordinary works of art, science, literature, and we appreciate the beauty of all those things.” She paused thinking of how to continue. “The fact is, at some point our society will collapse. Our species will inevitably become extinct. It would be an incalculable and unforgivable loss if we fail to figure out how to pass on our most important contribution to the cosmos—our love of art, music, physics, mathematics, literature—our self-awareness—our sentience.”

“Do you believe our genetic makeup was enhanced?” Ramuell asked.

“Yes I do. It’s likely some ancient species helped direct our evolutionary course. I just don’t believe the fabled missing link exists.” Kadeya rubbed her lips and chin thoughtfully. “Or rather the missing link did exist—it just happened to be from another world. Perhaps they were so good at splicing and dicing our ancestor’s genome that now we can neither prove nor disprove their intervention.”

Ramuell asked, “So on Ghrain-3 are we just carrying on a galactic tradition?”

With a slight shake of her head, Kadeya continued, “It’s a bit more complex than that. As I said, on Ghrain-3 we’ve learned a good deal about ourselves. Early on there was considerable dissension among our explorers. On several occasions, they protested directives and at least half a dozen times scientists flatly refused to comply with instructions received through Anotas Command. As I understand it, only twice were those refusals related to technical issues. The other incidents of insubordination were about ethical conflicts.

“All of those cases were ultimately resolved through legally mediated processes. That’s not to say everyone agreed with the decisions, but the issues were resolved. Then several annum ago philosophical and ethical disagreements on Ghrain-3 escalated from insubordination to insurgency. This occurred so quickly the authorities on Domhan-Siol hadn’t even been alerted before a smattering of violent incidents occurred.”

Ramuell exclaimed, “Violence!?”

The knowledge that Domhanians had actually resorted to violence made Kadeya decidedly uncomfortable. “Yes, as hard as that is to believe. Unfortunately, the unrest among our own kind has hardly been the only problem we’ve encountered on Ghrain. You might even say our efforts there have been a cursed enterprise. That is if you were a cultist and believed in their divine interventions and angels and curses and other such nonsense.”

Ramuell could not possibly have foreseen how poorly his grandmother’s spiritual skepticism would serve them in the decades ahead. Ghrain-3 would prove to be far more mystical and complex than either of them could imagine.

Books In This Series

Alien Genesis (Eden's Angels Book 1)