All things begin with water (4)
Chapter Summary: Gratian was rescued from the Christa by Caligula.
Caesar learns the truth about Phaethon's death. He then chooses to delete the self-suppressing DNA of the "water-decomposing bacteria." This is his final revenge against his allies…
(Note: The term "Christa" comes from Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game," referring to the magical monastery where the protagonist resides—it might be a monastery, but I don't know how else to describe that place—that's the name. It's a subtle reference by the author in the text...)
Estravan was elected Speaker of the Council the year after the Alliance government returned to Hynesen; he remained in that position until the Earth Republic was destroyed, that is, after it was completely annexed by the Galactic Empire under Emperor Gratian.
That day, I was in the lab, bent over watching the photosynthetic bacteria multiply and divide in the greenhouse, when suddenly the microscope shattered. The news broadcast stopped, a piercing siren blared, and a huge spiderweb-like pattern spread across the glass curtain wall—one, two, three… a series of astonishing tremors followed, and then the wall collapsed with a deafening roar. Dozens of motorcycles sputtered and belched smoke from their exhaust pipes, and the leader dragged me outside. My shin was broken in the process, and my leg scraped against the ground, leaving a trail of bright blood. Enduring the excruciating pain, I cried out, “Caligula! Gratian is locked up in Krista!”
"You know?!" he snarled. "You fucking know he's suffering there, and you just stand by and watch? Do you have a conscience? Are you even human? Aren't you his adoptive father? You know he loves you, and this is how you repay him?"
Caligula didn't actually intend to spare my life. He was going to shoot me dead. After Gratian's defeat and capture, he received special treatment under Alliance law because he was the orphan of a former government soldier, and was released after a few months in prison. He joined an underground anti-government organization, becoming a key member, vowing to rescue Gratian and help the leader of the New Humans regain power. Caligula didn't know that Gratian and I had a sexual relationship; otherwise, he wouldn't have waited until he dragged me to Krista, he would have tortured me to death in the lab long ago. He probably would have sprayed photosynthetic bacteria on me, causing me to painfully turn into a cloud of gas.
“Gratian?” I called out.
Krista was shrouded in fog at night, and my voice slipped into the thick darkness.
“We’re here. We’re here.” Caligula slapped me hard across the face, grabbing my scalp to make me see clearly ahead. He dragged me along, his men following silently behind. My thigh was still bleeding; they wrapped it in gauze to prevent the blood from staining the ground and attracting pursuers. Caligula gave his men instructions on how to retreat after rescuing Gratian.
"Then... what should we do with this ally?"
I heard him say he was going to throw me out to feed the dogs. There was a faint light ahead, and I was still calling Gratian's name. Then I stopped.
I saw Gratian encased in a membrane of amniotic fluid, just as I had when I first took him out of the incubation chamber; only this time he was a young man, his bones and features fully developed, a boy, somewhere between childhood and maturity; he was no longer a shrunken, red-skinned, tiny, soft-limbed infant. He wasn't curled up in warm blankets, his face pale from being soaked in water, thick metal pipes, as thick as forearms, piercing his skin, their bluish-purple veins bulging like blood-sucking leeches, clinging to his thin, almost transparent skin. Some flesh had been cut open, the water caressing the exposed white bones.
"Gradius, do you...do you remember me?"
The boy in the water stared with empty, blank eyes.
"The Earth Republic Alliance is...our greatest homeland, and we, all its citizens...should be loyal to her for life."
This was a series of instructions typed into an electronic program, uttered intermittently from the boy's mouth. His brain had been rewritten, his memories were disordered, and whenever he tried to recall anything about his past, it triggered his pain mechanisms, causing his muscles to tense, his pupils to dilate, and his colon to spasm. His body gradually rejected any past, any people or events from the past; the researcher in charge of the project proudly declared in an interview with a journalist:
"Humans and New Humans are essentially the same; both are advanced computers. However, ordinary computers are powered by electricity, while human algorithms operate through the metabolism of glucose, oxygen, proteins, and fats. Computers issue electrical commands, and the human brain transmits bioelectric currents through nerve cells—especially New Humans. Because they are so intelligent, they can be completely transformed into computers for our use. We have already tested this on the New Human, Gratian, no less than a thousand times."
However, the researcher was soon reported for academic misconduct, having falsified some experimental data. The theory that "humans are biological computers" can only explain the pleasure humans feel when drinking sweet breast milk because the intake of fat and sugar stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain; it cannot explain why some people, many years later, when drinking the same thing, think of the earth, the sky, or their mother; some might think of a small house, a man bustling around an oven, and the warm, comforting aroma of coffee in the air.
The researcher couldn't understand it at the time, and he even found me based on the appearance of the man that Gratian had associated with him.
“I think… the person Gratian thought of is you, maybe it’s you?” The researcher was a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry if I’m wrong. After all, after stimulating his neurons, all we can extract from his retina now is a blurry face.”
"Well, we tried a lot of drugs on him back then, 103 kinds. Yeah, that number. But it's still very difficult to guide his memories of you, very difficult to delete, modify, or add anything, like hatred or something similar. Only love... or perhaps 'affection' would be more accurate, this feeling seems to be rooted in his genes. After all, most humans associate this with their mother or lover. Ah... what kind of story do you have with him? You might as well tell us, it might help our research..."
I started to drift off while listening.
Later, I quit my job at the research institute. I holed up in a small, messy little house and hardly went out anymore. I spent my days lying in bed, enduring the migraines caused by insomnia.
The jar opened, the amniotic sac ruptured. Caligula roared, directing his men in a fierce gunfight with the allied forces who had rushed in at the sound. I saw the boy in the jar seem to frown; he found it a bit noisy. Still submerged in the amniotic fluid, he awoke, took a piece of bloody flesh—perhaps animal or human—from an iron hook beside him, bit into it, and chewed. Blood still stained his black fur. His first action after waking was to eat. At that moment, I realized that the researchers' ambition to create a "biological computer" was a joke. My Gratian hadn't been transformed into the "Tree of Zeus," nor even a regular computer. He had simply gone mad.
“Mr…Chairman?” Caligula and his men seemed somewhat frightened when they saw Gratian; even their disappointment was overshadowed. Gratian looked up, tilting his head curiously at them. They immediately took a few steps back.
Caligula gritted his teeth and said to retreat first and talk about it later.
I held Gratian in my arms, gently patting away the flesh covered in black hair from his hand. I pried his fingers open one by one; he was very nervous, his hands clenched into fists. I carefully wiped away the blood and sap between his fingers, saying, “It’s alright, it’s alright. Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you, Gratian. I will protect you. If you want to eat this kind of thing every day, I will kill fresh people or livestock for you every day and feed you their meat; if you can’t speak, I will teach you from the beginning; if you are afraid, I will hold you and sleep with you every night. Gratian, Gratian, don’t tremble, don’t cry, look, I’ve come to take you home.”
Later, while I was imprisoned in the Galactic Empire, I learned by chance that Caligula brought me to the place where Gradian was imprisoned not to stage a reunion, but to make me suffer and regret, to make me kneel before Gradian and repent, and then kill me. He hoped that I would be frightened by the terrible state of Gradian's torture. In the end, it turned out that he was the one who was scared away.
“Caesar,” Gratian said expectantly, “you were worried about me. So you came to rescue me, didn’t you?”
The emperor pressed me down on the bed from behind; I endured his invasion from behind, a subtle pleasure seeping into my skin and limbs. His movements were slow, like a victorious lion savoring the sweet taste of its prey.
“I really missed you then. When I was lucid, I thought about you every single moment. Sometimes my mind was foggy, and I felt like I was locked in a very, very dark place.” He breathed slightly. “Your damned friend, oh yes, the Alliance Speaker Estravan, he came to see me once. Only once. I asked him where Caesar was? Anyway, I was still worried about you. You were being used by them, being deceived by them. Caesar, why don’t you understand that in this world, only I would give everything for you without reservation?”
His gentle movement sent a shiver through my body, and I couldn't help but cry out, "No..."
"The Speaker of the Alliance said, 'Do you know who your genes come from? Do you know why Caesar loves you?' He mentioned a name, Phaethon Ganymede. That's your brother, your own brother, isn't he? He said you used his genes to create me. My features and temperament are exactly the same as this dead man's. I'm just a tool you use to replace me. Even if I die, there will be thousands upon thousands of replacements. Recreated, fertilized, grown, and reproduced. He can't understand why you're so good to me. Actually, I'm wondering the same thing. When I was little, Estravan was also very good to me, but now he's completely changed. He said I'm a new human, a slave, and of course I should only serve you humans, not usurp your rights."
"Caesar, to you, what makes me different from the other organisms in your lab? Tell me! Tell me!"
He suddenly grabbed the back of my neck, his body burning hot, his movements fierce. I bit my lip to keep from screaming; my face was pressed against the pillow, completely crushed onto the mattress. I knelt, struggling to suppress the dizziness, gasping for breath, and said, "You think, you think I went to save you willingly? It's laughable! It was your dog, Caligula, who tied me up and put me in your place… If you had died then, how could I, how could I be here as your slave? Your Majesty, Gratian, I valued you, I loved you, only because you had," a surge of pleasure blurred my vision, and I said haltingly, "you had the exact same face as Phaethon. That's all."
Actually, you two are completely different. You are two entirely independent individuals. Compared to you, Phaethon is just an ordinary boy. My last shred of reason argued in my mind, but I didn't say it aloud. My tears fell "plop, plop" onto the soft bedding.
He paused for a moment. After that, all the words I uttered turned into broken sentences. I felt a dampness on the back of my neck; tears had dripped onto it.
At that moment, I was standing in front of the incubation tank when the Allied soldiers stormed in. I felt my arm being tugged. At first, I was patient, but when they saw the dirty, huddled boy I was tightly clutching in my arms, they immediately started yelling. Reaching for the blood-stained boy in my arms, I felt like I'd been electrocuted. "Get away," I said. They grabbed my arms, tied my hands behind my back, and then, raising their rifle butts, slammed them hard against my spine. I tried to hold onto the boy tightly, my vision blurring. "Gradian! Gradian, let him go! Don't touch him…Gradian!"
The boy slipped from my grasp and let out a whimpering, baby-like cry. My head was pinned to the ground, but I still held my arms high, outstretched, trying to embrace the terrified boy.
The boy was dragged away like a dog. His fingernails dug deep grooves into the floor. The soldiers, imitating their comrades, kicked me in the back, one after another. My head and neck were repeatedly struck, my hands held up, until I passed out.
My Gratian has been taken away.
Estravan came to see me while I was lying in my hospital bed. He apologized on behalf of the Allied government, saying that we shouldn't have used violence against a hostage held by terrorists. I said no, "It's not your fault. It's not something you could decide."
"What's wrong? You look strange," I asked.
He looked at me, seemingly wanting to say something but hesitating. "Um... what do you think of this hospital? Is the ward comfortable?"
I said I was fine. Thanks to some friends I know in Estravan, I was able to stay in such a good hospital and enjoy public medical care.
"Gratian has been exiled." After a long silence, he finally said:
“You know, the star system outside the Iliad Stargate is under construction, and he… he was sent there. But, but don’t worry, because…” He suddenly stopped talking. He only stopped talking halfway through a sentence when he couldn’t comfort me anymore.
I stared blankly at the snow-white wall directly in front of me in the ward, and at a potted green ivy sitting on a gray, paint-splattered steel frame. The ivy's leaves were already wilted. I nodded and said, "Okay. I understand. Why did you look like that? Don't worry, I'm fine. By the way, Ye Yuanchun called me yesterday and said he'd come to pick me up from the hospital today."
"Caesar, are you... are you really alright?"
Ye Yuanjun pushed open the door and entered. Unaware that she had interrupted a fairly important conversation, or rather, pretending not to, her eyes were vacant, completely oblivious to the atmosphere in the ward. She said, "Oh, I came to see Caesar… What are you doing here, Speaker of the Alliance? No wonder there was such a long line in the hospital parking lot. The media really is everywhere these days. Is there something you need? If so, we can talk first. I'll come back later to pick Caesar up."
Estravan immediately said it was nothing. "Okay. Caesar, then see you in a few days."
After Estravan left, Ye Yuanchun turned to me, her expression changing. She said Yang Luo was missing, "Could something have happened to her?"
I told her not to worry; she was one of the few people who knew the password to my lab when I was kidnapped last time. I think she's made up her mind to work for an underground terrorist organization. Her decision to give up her position as a prosecutor in the Alliance and become a wanted criminal was truly unexpected. "Thank you for picking me up. Haru, work starts tomorrow. Let's go back to the lab."
Her eyes lit up when I called her name. I then realized my mistake. I usually call her by her full name. As I opened my mouth, she quickly said, "Okay! I specially drove a new car here, please sit down. I'll drive!"
I gently shook my head and said, "Okay."
The government reinvested in the photosynthetic water bacteria project and appointed me as the project leader. Before this appointment was officially made, Estravan testified to my innocence before the review committee, saying that my affair with Gratian was nothing more than something a normal, emotionally driven adult man would do.
"First, the terrorists wanted to kill him, but the timely intervention of the Allied forces prevented an irreversible tragedy. Gratian was his adopted son, and he loved him deeply. Second, Caesar Ganimed's talent was indispensable to the progress of the project."
He listed various reasons and finally persuaded the review committee to let me lead the "Photosynthetic Water Bacteria" project.
Phaethon conceived the idea of photosynthetic water bacteria, laying the foundation for its initial form, which Gratian ultimately completed; now they are truly multiplying in my hands, and it is unimaginable for anyone else to touch this project—they would defile it and ruin its purity. This is a magical invention that belongs only to me and the two people I love most. It may not be grand, but it is exquisite and delicate enough.
The project is progressing smoothly, and the government has recognized my efforts. I'm spending more and more time nurturing them. Through them, I seem to be observing the thoughts, breath, and pulse of their two creators, even though they are just clumsy, wriggling little bacteria.
In a small drawer in the lab, I found a file left by Prosecutor Yang Luo. She hadn't taken it with her, nor had she handed it over (perhaps she had; these were copies she kept after her routine inspections and case handling?). As a public official exercising authority in the lab, her job was quite easy, and the requirements for file preservation weren't strict; the files were placed where I could easily access them. I looked at several cases she had recorded, all involving a homeless person breaking into a closed campus gate one day, student A fighting with student B over reserving a seat in the study room, student C having their degree revoked for plagiarism and subsequently filing an administrative lawsuit against the university; cases like these.
I glanced at the thriving bacteria in the petri dish, then made coffee while reading the files.
Yang Luo's handwriting is very delicate. Then I saw that she wrote:
"The deceased, Faeton Ganimed, drowned in a lake behind the Central University. The case is questionable. The body was highly decomposed when discovered. After four confirmations by the forensic department, it was found that the deceased had bruising on the throat area indicating that he was not strangled by himself, and multiple rib fractures. There were also multiple binding marks on the wrists. The deceased did drown, but it is suspected that a third party bound his hands and feet, choked his throat, and tied heavy objects to his limbs, causing him to sink and drown. The case has been reported. We await a response from higher authorities."
The next page was thin, only two pages long. "Superior's approval: Case reviewed. The deceased, Phaethon Ganimede, indeed drowned after falling into the water during a summer downpour and landslide. Case closed. No further investigation."
I carefully resealed each of the carelessly laid-out files. Sitting at the table, I thought back to that day when Fahrenheit went out alone with me. I told him, "It's going to rain tonight. Don't go up the mountain, it's not safe." He said it was alright, just a light drizzle. "Don't worry, brother, I have some data to collect, I'll be home as soon as I'm done. Oh, by the way, today an official from the Allied government said he wanted to see how I usually work. I agreed. You know him, he's always been against research on water bacteria."
Fahrenheit's death was a conspiracy. The next day, various media outlets began "mourning the fall of a brilliant young scientist." His death immediately halted funding for the photosynthetic water bacteria project in parliament. One party lost, and another came to power.
Why did it take me so long to realize this?
They killed my Phaethon, and now they've taken my Gratian.
I watched the aquatic bacteria swimming freely in the petri dish. They each possessed a single DNA molecule, located in the nucleoid region; 5698 gene sites, of which 5960 genes were identical to those in ordinary bacteria, responsible for heredity, growth, and capturing energy from the environment to fuel their growth; 15 genes were responsible for cell division and replication; 22 genes were responsible for flexibly adjusting their traits to adapt to the environment—these were potential mutation points. The last gene, which was originally also a mutation point, was locked; it controlled the rate of bacterial cell division.
All living things have a tendency to reproduce infinitely, yearning to let their genetic code sequence dominate the entire universe. Bacteria are no exception. From the very beginning of the research on aquatic bacteria, Phaethon noticed the potential danger of this bioenergy source: if aquatic bacteria continued to reproduce and use solar energy to decompose water, then one day they would decompose all the water on Earth. Therefore, he locked up the "last genome," and the aquatic bacteria would self-consume after multiplying to a certain size. He conducted experiments using these "castrated" bacteria. I certainly understand Phaethon's concerns.
He worried that if his research findings were misused, they could endanger humanity and harm lives. He was always a kind and good kid.
I opened the gene correction interface. Metal tweezers reached out, and I took them.
The laboratory's central control panel asks, "Are you sure you want to modify the 'final genome' of the 'photosynthetic water bacteria'?"
I chose, "Yes".
"This modification will awaken the bacteria's reproductive instincts, causing widespread decomposition of Earth's water bodies and the dehydration and death of numerous organisms. This bacterium has the potential to evolve into a new type of super biological weapon. Are you fully aware of this?"
"I am aware of this."
"Okay. Data entry in progress. The next gene modification experiment will require you to manually control and collect subsequent mutant spores."
I obtained a test tube of photosynthetic aquatic bacteria with the code that inhibited reproduction removed; it was a fluorescent green and looked no different from the other aquatic bacteria I had previously observed.
Afterwards, I applied to the Allied government to suspend the project, arguing that spore cultivation had reached a bottleneck and that continuing to invest manpower and resources before obtaining more experimental data would be an ineffective waste. The Allied government approved my application, and several scientists who were originally scheduled to come to my laboratory to assist me in the research and development of aquatic bacteria postponed their arrival.
I put the newly cultivated bacteria into a 10-cubic-meter water tank and sealed it. In less than half a day, the tank burst due to the overflowing hydrogen and oxygen. I sealed the lab, pressed the emergency sterilization button, and a high-temperature flame jet of over 2000 degrees Celsius killed the bacteria and prevented their further spread. I restarted the lab and destroyed everything that was inside. I was terrified of letting even a single aquatic bacterium escape. I don't know why I was so timid; I had unlocked their inhibition code precisely to report back to the Earth's Republican Alliance, hadn't I?
Jun Ye Yuan asked me if something had happened. News of the lab fire had spread throughout the alliance overnight, and everyone connected to my lab was being held accountable. I apologized and said, "I'll take responsibility for this. Don't worry."
I resigned from my job at the research institute and disbanded my original laboratory. They were very reluctant to let me go, so I asked Estravan for help, and they found new jobs with the new head of the laboratory.
Later I heard that Caligula had been arrested. He surrendered himself. He had heard that Gratian had been exiled and insisted on following him. He confessed his crimes to the Allied police, asking for no leniency, only to go where Gratian was now. The prosecutor who had reached a plea bargain with him had to remind him, "We understand your request. However, we cannot guarantee your safety in such a place; secondly, it has been over a year, and the convicted Gratian is likely dead."
Caligula replied, "Stop pretending. You all wish I were dead. You're only doing this for the sake of my father who died for his country, to give yourself a good publicity boost, and you're too embarrassed to just kill me."
"Besides, whether I want to live or die is none of your business. I am free to die if I want to."
The prosecutor was so angry his nose almost crooked.
After Caligula left, the Alliance's underground anti-government forces were greatly weakened. I don't know where Yang Luo is; perhaps she was arrested and secretly executed, or perhaps she wasn't, and continues her revolutionary activities behind the scenes.
I recall the details of the lab burning down. Of the test tube of bacteria, only a drop of solution was added to the water tank; the rest must have been destroyed in the fire. Probably. It's a bit of a regret; I should have preserved some; if I hadn't been so panicked and worried about the bacteria spreading into nature. At the time, I didn't know that Caligula had stolen half a tube of photosynthetic water bacteria when he attacked me and dragged me out of the lab; that kid might not understand science, might not know how to delete the inhibitory code, but he understood fanaticism, hatred, and incitement.
——tbc——
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