Mercury - Part 4

Part 4 – Neptune

EXPERIMENT 205, 24/01/2025

(Two figures sit across from each other at the table. One is a middle-aged man, the other is an ocelot recom of age six. It has its arms crossed and is looking sternly at the man from across)
RESEARCH ASSISTANT: "Hello, Neptune. I would like to-"
NEPTUNE: "Please, before we start this, I need to talk to you about something."
RA: "What is it, Neptune?"
N: "Mercury. I know that it's been scheduled for euthanasia, pending final approval. Why?"
RA: "Mercury is defective. This isn't important, anyways, I..."
N: "No, it's important." (Neptune bangs its fist on the table) "It's very important!"
RA: "Don't interrupt me, Neptune. We're here to test your problem solving abilities today."
N: "I won't."
RA: "What?"
N: "I won't do it, unless you talk to me about Mercury."
RA: "You can't decline. You will be punished if you do. You don't want punishment, do you?"
N: "What will you do to me? It won't be anything worse than what you'll do to Mercury. This can't wait. We have to talk about this now!" (N stands up on its chair, and says) "You can't kill Mercury! You can't kill it! I won't let you!"
RA: "Neptune, you're being irrational. There's nothing you can do to prevent it. It's just the way the world is. Besides, if you don't cooperate in the experiments, you'll share Mercury's fate."
N: "No."
RA: "What?"
N: "We are prototypes. You have invested six years in me. You can't euthanize me."
RA: "We've invested six years in Mercury, too. Your logic is flawed."
N: "I'm exactly what you want, though. I'm your perfect Neptune. Mercury is not your perfect Mercury... it's broken, I know. You said defective... But don't kill it. It's worth saving. You just don't see it..."
RA: "You're a child. You don't understand these things."
N: "No." (Pause.) "You know that's not true. Me, Jupiter and Mercury... we're smart. Smart as some of you. You know it, too. You've seen the experiments."
RA: "We will conclude this experiment here. We will resume experiments after Mercury is euthanized, so you don't have any more emotional outbursts. You will receive punishment every day until then."
N: "You won't euthanize Mercury. I swear it. I won't let anyone hurt her."
(N crosses its arms, looks pointedly at RA, hops off of its chair and walks towards the door. The film ends here.)

***

After Errol reminded us of what he did to Rusty, he and Samara seemed to exchange glances, keeping their eyes on each other for an uncomfortable amount of time. Or at least I was uncomfortable! Neither Errol nor Sam seemed to think the amount of time uncomfortable. Errol just looked at Sam with a calculating expression, while the gaze in return seemed to just be one of contemplative thoughtfulness. I wished silently that I knew what they were thinking, why they were looking at each other like that. But that would have implied I was a telepath, and surely the government would want to cut into my brain to figure that out. I wondered further if they really would cut out my brain, since-

"Well," said Errol, now cutting off my own thoughts instead of just my words, "it looks to me like you're both ready to receive your briefing. Let's begin, shall we?" The ocelot recom pulled an envelope out of his crisply pressed suit jacket, and opened it up. I idly wished that I had a suit like that. It looked pretty slick.

"Let's," responded Samara with a nod. I was a little bit disappointed that I wasn't the one making that response. I was supposed to be the leader in our partnership, wasn't I? I just silently listened on, though, since there wasn't really anything I could do about that.

"What you already know is that I'm sending you in to retrieve some encryption data. But that's only part of your mission," said Olne. I knew that there would be a catch of some kind. The kind of reward that Olne was offering never came easily.

Sam just nodded along, so I did the same thing, bobbing my head up and down to prompt Olne to keep speaking. "The former task is more politically charged, and I will give you the specifics about that, first. You need to gain the encryption key from Designer Genes."

"Designer Genes?" I repeated. I knew the company. A Martian company created to provide parents with the option of selecting their children's traits. It was a very expensive craft compared to the standard genetic modifications that most recoms have to get just to keep from getting all kinds of cancers. When your genes are already hashed together haphazardly, proper reproduction becomes a bit more difficult. But Designer Genes was something different. Something that made me a bit uncomfortable.  These rich parents buy perfect children. Eventually, I'd figure they'd all look like little cookie cutter people.

"Yes," replied Olne, "Designer Genes is a major company. I know that they are working on something big right now. I can intercept their transmissions without them knowing, but without the encryption key, it's all moot. What I need from you two is to locate and acquire that information."

"It shouldn't be so bad. Nothing I haven't done before," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I'm kinda curious why you would want to spy on Designer Genes, though. They're not even a competitor for your company. You're a trader. They provide a weird service. There's really no overlap."

Both Samara and Errol stared at me like I said something completely silly. I didn't know why Samara was looking at me like that, but I found out Errol's reasons pretty quickly: "This isn't corporate espionage. This is government business. Designer Genes is currently one of the largest companies on Mars. Over there, that's who controls the government."

I nodded, thoroughly chastised. I would have expected to be contacted through a government agency if it was going to be government business, though. Like that ever happens! I scratched under my chin lightly and smiled, "Well, like I said, nothing I haven't done before. What's the special task?"

Errol Olne looked over at Samara for a moment and then towards me, "The other task is more for sentimentality's sake, but still part of your mission. I've been looking for some old records. They're like a sort of family history that I would just like to get my hands on. I know that they're located in the Designer Genes offices, but the likelihood that they would just hand them over to a Lunarian politician is pretty weak."

Sam looked at Errol for a few moments, as if trying to anticipate the next few words that would come out of his mouth, even prompting him with the comment: "As much as I like all this chit-chat, and I'm sure I'd find your fancy family lovely, what are you looking for?"

Errol smiled mildly at Sam and said, "I'm looking for the records for the Sol Series."