The Duadex: Chapter Four: Phyla's End

This is the fourth chapter of my next serialised audiobook on this app and the third book in the Soulwaves Anthology. This audiobook will be exclusive to Premium subscribers. You can also find the first book, Soulwaves : A Future History and the second book, Soulwaves : Insertions on the app too.

For some background, listen to The Duadex: Preamble and you will find all the chapters curated and collected in the eponymous playlist.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Transcript

Chapter 4, Phyla's End. Adal was quite small for a Mayan. I suspected this was why he was a bit of a bully, Making up for an inferiority complex. He was a good half metre shorter than Caleb's 3 metres, And a fraction shorter even than a bearer. I only really noticed this for the first time when the triad all stood, While Caleb told the populace what was planned for the next two days. While Caleb spoke, I was mindful how lucky I was that he was leading the triad for this year. He was stepping down shortly and Adal would take over the lead, With a new member elected from the populace. The members of the triad were all chosen at random, Served for three years and then stepped down. It would be Obera's turn to lead in another year's time. I wasn't alone in my distaste for Adal. Today Adal will be reviewing why we sanctioned the mission based on Sian's discoveries, Caleb said. Tomorrow we'll review what happened from when the mission arrived at the moon base until we lost the whole crew, He continued. Our aim is to learn from what happened, And to see what we can take away from this tragedy that might be useful to us here on Maya. I was thankful that my grilling with Adal would be over by the end of today. I was even more grateful to hear that Obera would be leaving the tribunal for the last day. I was also buoyed up to hear that her brief was to explore what learnings might be applied to further terraformation of Maya. Perhaps there could still be a role for me. When Caleb wrapped up, Adal wasted no time in getting stuck in. I knew what he'd be digging for. It was an answer to a question that I'd asked myself many times. So Sian, He barked. We all know that without your research project, We would never have found one of the two interplanetary depths that brought humans to Mars over 100, 000 years ago. I noticed he correctly used the old name for our planet back then. What you've never explained is why you were on the other side of the planet in the first place. I didn't really know this either, And could only reveal the truth, Or half of it at least. Our aquatic seismograph detected an impact, And Tristan and I went to investigate a replied, Omitting to tell him it actually detected three impacts. I continued. When we got to site, The impactor had revealed the top of the craft, Right in the centre of the crater. There was only one thing I still didn't understand, Which was why the meteorite, Although quite small, Hadn't damaged the craft. This was especially puzzling when we eventually discovered so much heat damage on its base from its original crash landing. I also genuinely didn't know at that time that the impactor had been sent by the council. Adol obviously wanted everyone to know, He was intimate with the whole project. So after you recovered and rebooted the Q-computer, How long was it before you got it working? As I think I told you many times, We brought it back for analysis, Gave it power, And it lay dormant, I replied. Just less than a year after we retrieved it, The Q-computer spoke to us. I remember the words clearly and repeated them. It said, I can help you build a replacement TET. Again, Adol probed, And who came up with the idea for this new craft to return from where it was first built, So we could terraform Earth? That was the Q-computer too, I replied. I genuinely didn't know then that it was the council speaking. I continued without prompting as a new Adol knew this and I might wind down his clock. We were instructed to recover the lower TET from outside valves and the lander TET from inside the canyon. The three crafts self-repaired themselves over a period of two million years as we prepared the payloads. Adol cut back in, And who designed the terraformation payloads exactly? Again, The Q-computer took over the exact synthesis of the RNA and DNA structures we took to Earth, I replied truthfully. An idea came from my fifth brain to give Adol some information he didn't know that would wobble him for the afternoon. What puzzled Tristan the most, I said, Was why the human genome had been omitted from the taxonomy vectors for the phyla. Only chordates were at the top of the tree. My bombshell induced a collective gasp from the populace, And I could see I'd thrown Adol off track. Obera, Did you know this? Adol asked of her, As she had expertise and interest in this area of the project. I did, But assumed it was because we were to colonise Earth, Rather than waiting billions of years to evolve out of the gloop, She replied. My fifth brain seized the opportunity to derail Adol still further. Tristan told me there were to be no cats, Dogs or horses either. Calab stepped in and took control. I suggest we take a short break. Obera, Can you run a comparison on our assumed taxonomy of phyla and the actual payloads? Sure, It will take an hour or so, She replied. Let's adjourn till after lunch, Calab said abruptly. I was pretty pleased that I derailed the process so successfully, And thanked my fifth brain and asked for some more ideas like this for the afternoon session. Lunch for me didn't require food intake as such, But I much appreciated a mini-regen in my pod. The fluid had all the nutrients my body needed. I didn't know that Adol had gone straight back to watching me undergo this process, As he had for much of last night. He'd become transfixed at my colour changes, And was hell-bent on creating a reaction during the next session. I'd remained translucently neutral throughout the morning session, And hoped I could hold it together without so much of a flush.