Revolution, revolution (3)
Chapter Summary: Gratian creates new human embryos, seeing them as a beacon of hope. The student revolutionary group splits. Caesar unexpectedly becomes a hostage used by rebels to threaten Gratian. Gratian falls into enemy hands.
Caesar: I wonder who was it that was bragging about saving me, and then... :)
A month later, a parliamentary election was held. The assembly elected a new Allied government, led by Gratian, the student council president of Haiyingsen Central University. The various official positions and staff within the new government were filled by student-elected representatives. Given the students' lack of practical governing experience, former Allied bureaucrats were required to form an "advisory cabinet." They held no real power, but were obligated to provide effective advice and assistance to the new government when necessary; otherwise, they would be prosecuted for "treason."
The election process was broadcast live across the entire galaxy, and all communities and classes of humanity had the right to watch. The former government of the Earth Republican Alliance, having lost its capital and with its command center paralyzed, had already issued a protest before the convening of this parliamentary session. It was then revealed that the former government had relocated to Pluto's companion planet, supposedly due to a shortage of water resources, and that the eight planets of the solar system and their orbits were essentially under the control of the Earth-Hysen regime. The Alliance elders were forced to search the entire galaxy for water.
At the end of the meeting, as the video call was activated and shouts of "Long live Gratian! Long live the new government!" came from all the human star systems present, Gratian humbly stated that this was not just his achievement, but the result of the joint efforts of him and his partners. "I, Gratian, promise that my glory will not belong to me alone; it will belong to all mankind."
"Hereby, the new government of the Earth Republican Alliance declares that we will fulfill our previous promise of the Universal Genetic Modification Act. From the human database collected across the entire galaxy, a varying number of gene chains will be randomly selected, and a new batch of babies will be born. These babies will be raised by the entire society. Please believe that they are children of all citizens present here by blood—not just those of the elite and powerful. We will prove that inheritance is fair, life is equal, and technology should not be monopolized by a tiny minority of powerful families."
Gratian concealed the existence of the Tree of Zeus; he intended to destroy it. However, his fellow students who had organized the revolution disagreed. The Tree of Zeus was a powerful weapon, and since the Allied government valued the project, it could also be used as leverage against them.
Some students suggested that they should continue the research and development of the "Tree of Zeus," but Gratian refused.
“You shouldn’t let your personal preferences hold the interests of the entire group hostage,” the former student council officer, now a member of parliament, reminded the chairman.
"If your definition of 'freedom' is putting people in a meticulously crafted, brand-new prison."
"We're talking about practical solutions, not ideals."
Gratian said, "I've emphasized this before. We should place our hopes on the babies that are about to be born."
"A new kind of human being carrying the genes of the entire society?"
"Yes. They are the future of humanity."
“Moreover, this is just the first batch. Ultimately, everyone has the right to make themselves better,” he said.
"So what should be done with the 'Tree of Zeus'?"
"Needless to say? Permanently destroy its computing core. Forever."
“This is tantamount to cutting off our own escape route.” The student councilor shook his head. “The Tree of Zeus is a major project of the former government. The valuable technical data it contains goes without saying; moreover, by possessing the Tree of Zeus, we hold the bargaining chips in negotiations with the remaining forces of the former government. Thus, the advantage is in our hands.”
"Advantages. Ha."
"Are you trying to prepare a way out for your surrender in advance?" Gratian sneered. "What? You're so nervous because you've touched their core interests? Are you afraid of terrible retaliation later?"
“Gratian,” the student councilor said, “calm down. We are now comrades in the revolution. If we’re talking about the core interests of the previous government, we’ve violated them a thousand times over. One more time won’t make a difference.”
Gratian remained silent. He stood there for a while, gazing out the window. "Alright... let's not destroy it for now. Let's freeze it."
After the meeting, the student councilors invited each other to dinner; some even invited the older members of the "consultative cabinet."
I observed the tiny embryos wriggling behind the glass curtain wall. These embryos were only two months old, sealed in elongated oval amniotic fluid tanks; the fertilized eggs, recently implanted, had developed indistinct heads and feet, their features curled up in their shells. A long umbilical cord connected them to the inner membrane of the amniotic fluid tanks, and at the top of the wall of tanks was an automatically adjusting nutrient supply system. The grape-sized embryos swayed gently, their bellies pulled, their appearance reminiscent of seeds. Endosperm, plumule, radicle, and cotyledons; a seed fallen to earth, in the warm, damp darkness, accompanied by the lonely sound of water, quietly awaiting the arrival of spring.
I don't understand politics, but I do understand biology. I said to Gratian with concern, "This is too risky. First of all, human gene editing is an immature technology. You are a perfect product, but... but this is our luck; I can't guarantee success even if we do it again."
I didn't tell him that hundreds of "Gradians" had failed before his "Gradian" was successfully removed from the culture dish. During the ten-month gestation period, the baby could die at any stage or in any step. "Secondly, your genes... your genes aren't mixed. There's never been a precedent for creating a healthy baby by mixing the entire human gene pool—never. Mixing different races, skin colors, and constitutions greatly increases the likelihood of rejection. For example, a person with type O blood cannot accept blood from anyone other than type O; otherwise, the newly transfused blood will definitely clot in the blood vessels, posing a life-threatening risk. Sometimes, the rejection between different human constitutions is much greater than you imagine."
"We have to give it a try. If it fails, we can just make another batch." He said it nonchalantly.
"These are all lives! Your recklessness will kill them..."
"Come on. How many 'failures' did you create before I? Weren't they living beings too?" Gratian retorted. "Besides," he looked awkwardly at the shimmering, pinkish-purple floating spheres, "these... they can't be considered people yet, can they?" He suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Wait, you just said I wasn't born 'mixed'? What do you mean? Am I different from these little things?"
I thought of Phaethon. "It's different. Your genes aren't that mixed. Yes, they come from the same person."
"From the same person? From whom?"
"Chairman!" came a panting female voice. It sounded familiar; it was the girl who had applied to skip work that day to celebrate her boyfriend's birthday. She now worked in the Ministry of National Defense under the new government; her rank was second lieutenant. "Reporting, Chairman! High-energy radar activity detected in the direction of the water intake!"
“The water intake…is it over by the fountain?” Gratian clicked his tongue. “I understand. I’ll go to the command room right away.”
"clear!"
“I’ll come over to your place later,” I said immediately. I didn’t know what was going on at the water intake, but it wouldn’t hurt to go and check it out.
A few emergency codes need to be entered into the embryo culture chamber, just in case. I turned the handle, and the culture chamber gradually dimmed, a deep, gentle fluorescence enveloping the embryos in the glass jars.
"Okay. Be careful." Gratian's clear footsteps echoed down the corridor.
The embryos were Gratian's hope. These children, so much like him, he said he would wait for them to be born, to grow up, and to share with them the glory, burden, and suffering of the new world he had seized, created, and built. But Gratian's ideal was ultimately shattered. We didn't know then that these tender, budding children would be brutally murdered before they even had a chance to grow features and limbs; their bodies were dismembered into blood-stained pieces by a hail of bullets, as people shouted, "Kill all the monsters!"
"Die, new humans!"
"Kill all monsters like Gratian!"
As these slogans were shouted at the top of their lungs, Caligula kept asking: Gratian? Where is Gratian? Where is he? Where has our leader gone?! Caligula had been by Gratian's side since the beginning of the rebellion; he was a silent shadow.
I said, since he doesn't know, then I know even less.
My response was cold. He shuddered, then suddenly clutched his stomach and slumped to the ground. I remembered he had a wound on his stomach, a gunshot wound, inflicted by his father. "Dad...no, I'm not an old human, no, I am, don't kill me. I'm so scared, help. I don't want to die, I don't want to die...Gradien..."
I pressed my forehead. Yes, this is the Earth Republic Alliance's second civil war, compared to the one Caligula's father was involved in.
As these embryos were killed, and Caligula frantically asked Gratian where he was, the armed uprising launched by the students of Hyysen University had already completely failed.
The door to the embryonic chamber slowly closed; outside, the air was incredibly clear and clean. I hurried towards Gratian, looking at the azure sky, thinking that this was indeed a good day for a surprise attack and bombing of ground targets. At the top of the city hall building, long metal supports held up a massive air defense network, high-energy particle beams crisscrossing the atmosphere. Haiyingsen's defenses were intact. The higher I climbed in the command tower, the more uneasy I felt. I could see the direction of the water intake, near the fountain—utter silence. No attackers in sight. I looked back; the dome of the embryonic chamber resembled half an eggshell lying flat in a nest of grass. My hand, clutching the chamber key, was sweaty.
A strong force suddenly pulled me backward. Then a group of people jumped out of the control tower. Students, led by the same senator who had argued with Gratian in parliament yesterday, extended his arm towards me. “Excuse me for any offense. Mr. Ganimede, give us the keys to the embryo chamber. You’ll be fine, I promise.”
The student councilor smiled.
Something's not right. This person is very strange.
In front of him and the students, I threw the keys off the seventh floor. The student councilor roared, and he shoved me against the railing at the edge of the control tower. With a slight turn of my head, I could see the forest of reinforced concrete that was about to engulf us all around.
The congressman's face was extremely unpleasant. "I thought you were a reasonable person."
“Are you trying to use the embryos to threaten Gratian?” I said. “You won’t succeed. It’s cruel to say, but if this batch dies, we can just fertilize another batch. I don’t think he’ll care about that at all.”
"Then why did you throw the keys out? Why are you so nervous?"
"Because I believe every life is precious. Born and unborn."
The student councilor gestured, and a student handed him a gun. He struck me hard on the back of the head with the barrel, the pain making my vision blur. Several student soldiers carried me to the highest communications tower. Gratian couldn't afford to bomb this place carelessly, nor could he deploy snipers. As soon as Gratian connected the video call, he saw my tears, large, hot tears streaming down my face. "These are just physiological tears," I reassured myself; I wasn't sad or upset. "I'm fine, Gratian. Don't worry."
Gratian's murderous gaze fell upon the student councilor. "What do you want?"
"Gratian, don't worry about me! Deal with this brat..."
"Looks like he's much more useful than any new human embryo. He's your little darling, isn't he, Gratian?" The butt of the rifle struck my already swollen and red wound on the back of my head.
"ah--!"
"You fucking dare touch him again!" Gratian jumped up in alarm.
"Chairman, I truly didn't expect you to back down so easily. I'm not putting on airs anymore. Playing your student revolution games with you all day, calling yourselves a 'new regime for the benefit of all mankind,' is laughable! What do you think we'd gain from joining you in this rebellion? The excitement will pass, and we'll become famous overnight—worth it! We'll be remembered in history! Students of Central University, we've known each other for so long, all from wealthy and powerful families, at the very least the sons of the second-in-command of some conglomerate. We're different from you. You were born a monster, an anomaly, what 'new human'? Every research project you undertake is ultimately for the benefit of us in future surgeries! What's so great about you? Besides, nominally you're just the adopted son of a biology academician. We don't lack what you lack, and you can't even imagine the troubles we face every day. Understand? Some people are born with everything, some are born to have nothing! Why should we follow your orders? Isn't it because—it's interesting! A rare life experience!"
I saw a clear hint of pain surface in Gratian's expression. I gave this arrogant young master a cold smile and said, "Ha. You're clearly just scared. Giving yourself so many excuses. Aren't there people from families with similar backgrounds to yours? Why didn't they just betray you like that?"
I'm stating the facts. On the other end of the video, Gratian was being pulled back by a group of students, who cried, "Chairman! Chairman, please calm down..."
The one who betrayed me kicked me hard in the ankle. I curled up in pain, gritting my teeth and refusing to utter a sound.
"you……!"
“Chairman, stop with the nonsense.” I heard the student councilor’s voice tremble slightly; he was gripping the back of my neck tightly, as if afraid I would slip away. The butt of his rifle swayed noticeably in the light. “Now, open the security net and let the government troops in. Let me tell you the truth, my grandfather is the commander-in-chief of the First Military Region of the Alliance Haiyingsen! And if you want the hostages back, come and exchange them yourselves! Superhumans, genetically modified humans, fully-formed new humans, damn it… do you think I’m afraid of you?!”
The student next to him nudged his elbow. Gratian then said, “Let him go first. Raise the gun a little, yes. Government warships are constantly patrolling in near-Earth orbit. If the protective nets are opened, a saturation charge of bombs will flood into Heysen, and you could be blown to bits. You're in the communications tower now, which is the highest point. So, listen to me, you'd better…”
"I don't care! Open up the protective netting! Let the government people in!"
"The first thing to come in is definitely a bomb, not a person! Do you think the government troops will save you? You have no way out!"
"Glatian, come here! Come here! I'm going to hand you over to the government! Open the protective netting, do you hear me?"
"Can you even understand human language? I told you the government forces won't let you go. Your grandfather's already 'recuperating' in the intensive care unit. Do you think they'd care about your life or death?! Your family has long since fallen into decline!" Gratian roared, enraged. "If you want to commit suicide, just jump off the communications tower! You idiot!"
The student councilor, tears streaming down his face, fired a shot into my shoulder. A scream filled my ears; the sound came from my own throat. The student councilor yelled, but I couldn't hear a word. Gratian's voice, though extremely low, carried clearly through the air.
“...Listen to me carefully,” he said slowly.
“I swear, every wound he suffers now is the smallest microcosm of your future wounds, and every bit of pain he endures will be returned to you tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold. All those you love and who love you, your family, friends, and teachers, will suffer the exact same torment and torture as you, and they will regret ever having seen you with their eyes, even once.”
Yang Luo quietly slipped away from Gratian and exchanged a few words with the boy next to her. The boy tried to stop her, but to no avail. She disappeared.
The student councilor burst into laughter. I'm sure he's gone mad, because he pulled the safety, the gun pointed at himself, completely oblivious to it, yelling, "Gradius, coward! Otherwise, I would have shot him, he'd be dead, dead!"
Guns whizzed about, bullets scattering and crackling all around me, the gusts of wind from them grazing my thighs, waist, abdomen, and neck. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder. The next second, I saw a massive rift open in the azure sky—the protective shield had deployed! Countless tiny black and red dots flashed—they must be Allied missiles. As I thought this, the black and red dots gradually brightened and magnified in my vision—
“Caesar—!!” I heard Gratian’s shrill cry.
Then I lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I found myself lying on a stretcher, my whole body wracked with pain. A makeshift IV drip was flowing through a plastic tube into a vein in my right arm. Yang Luo, her lips pale, sat beside me on a cement step covered with thick plastic bags. I noticed her face was scratched—fine, delicate, pinkish-white streaks of blood, not deep cuts, as if someone had stopped them in time. I asked, "Was Ye Yuanchun here with your face?"
She curled her lips into a slight smile. Her sarcastic expression carried a hint of impending tears. "No. She wanted to come, but Estravan wouldn't allow it, saying that because of what happened in Gratian, these are special times. If she dared to come to you, it would be treason. She probably doesn't care about treason; it seems she's been imprisoned over there."
"So how did you get hurt? Did a cat scratch you?"
"Glatian's little black cat."
“Caligula.” I nodded. “This young man has quite a temper. He even hits women.”
Yang Luo said that at that moment, a saturation quantity of ammunition was poured down, and Gratian rushed out recklessly, taking down a large number of people who tried to stop him. He rode his shuttle to the tower where I was, using it to smash through a rock fragment that was hurtling towards my head. He sat in the shuttle's pilot's seat, suffering a broken bone on the spot. A squad of government soldiers, landing through a gap in the anti-aircraft net, dropped more than a dozen bio-electric bombs. Gratian quickly calculated the trajectory of the bio-bombs, avoiding their blast radius. Looking up, the Allied soldier leading the squad smiled at Gratian, "Even with a broken bone, you still run so fast, and your mind is so clear. Truly excellent. But shouldn't you take a look at the men we have?"
The person he was holding was me. I was unconscious at the time, and the leader of the government troops had me by the neck. According to Gratian's later recollection, my brow was furrowed in considerable pain.
Gratian immediately threw down all his weapons and raised his hands high. "Release him. I'll go with you."
“That’s why Caligula scratched your face.” I understood. “Because it was you who opened the protective barrier, leading to Gratian being taken away by the Allied forces.”
Why open the protective netting?
Yang Luo remained silent for a long time. "There's no other way. This is the only way we can rescue you in the chaos."
"Yang Luo, do you really want me dead?"
She looked at me in surprise. "Caesar, I can't believe you think of me like that."
"Isn't that right? You know I'm standing so high up, the moment I open the air defense net, the Allied missiles will blow me to pieces."
"Never mind," she shook her head, looking worried. "I shouldn't have argued with a patient. You should focus on recovering."
I struggled to sit up, wanting to go find Gratian.
“Sit down. Caesar, don’t wander around. Do you want Gratian to be threatened by someone again because of you?”
"Of course not!"
"Wait, don't go yet. Yang Luo, how is Gratian now?"
"He was taken away by the government forces. Caligula shut down the air defenses in time, and the group that hijacked Gratian is now trapped in Heysen. However, this is not a long-term solution. I'm a little worried that they might take advantage of the next resupply opportunity to escape from Heysen, relaunch from the airports of other cities on Earth, enter space, and take Gratian away. At that time, we will be in a very dangerous situation."
The student councilor was killed in the bombing; the instant the air raid shelter was opened. His grandfather, who was supposedly "recuperating" in the intensive care unit, reportedly died of a heart attack shortly afterward. His grandfather was apparently the father of Estravan's ex-wife; I don't know why Estravan didn't try to help him. After the air raid shelter was closed, the commander of the advance force trapped in Heysen wasn't Estravan. Knowing this, I breathed a sigh of relief. This Allied force trapped in Heysen would likely be abandoned by the Allied government in the rear, or used as human bombs to weaken the student army's fighting capacity. I pushed open the door to the sun-baked command room. It was stuffy inside, and no one looked up at me. A gloomy and dejected atmosphere enveloped them.
The children had even stopped laughing. I was a little annoyed. I said, "Would you like something to drink? Coffee or tea?"
"We're about to land in the Red Sea. We can't delay any longer. We're out of water," a student said. "But if we land and look for supplies, we'll have to breach Haiyingsen's defensive perimeter. Can we withstand an attack from the Allied forces?"
"Then, let's have a cup of black tea each." I saw a whole box of brand-new tea leaves on the cabinet in the command room. I tested the temperature of the steaming thermos with my hand. "The water temperature is just right."
Will we ever see Gratian again?
"It's a little hot. Drink it later. One cup per person, don't take more." I placed a cup of unsweetened black tea in front of everyone in the command room. "The sugar container is in the box under the cabinet. Add it yourself if you need it."
"Gradius has been arrested!" a student yelled angrily at me. "And you're still thinking about your damn tea!"
"Exactly! If it weren't for you, how could Gratian have..."
"Hey," Yang Luo interrupted him.
The boy sat back down, tears welling in his eyes. He tried to hold them back, turning his head away, refusing to look at anyone else.
Caligula turned to me with a gloomy expression. "Is there something you need? Everyone's busy."
Two students, rifles in hand, were dozing against the iron frame by the doorway. A fly landed on the tip of one of their noses. The wound on my tongue hadn't fully healed; it was from biting it when I was shot in the shoulder. Speaking hurt a little. I said, "It's true I've caused trouble for everyone. I'm quite worried about Gratian, but given the current situation, if we do nothing, Gratian will eventually be taken into space, won't he? Then our student revolutionary group will be completely finished!"
A girl burst into tears. I was at a loss. Yang Luo patted her on the shoulder and said to me that her boyfriend was the student who had kidnapped me to threaten Gratian that day.
I turned my face away, unable to look at her. I felt guilty. She cried even louder.
Caligula said, "Why are you crying? Wasn't it you who listened to your boyfriend and tricked Gratian into going to the control room that day? And you were even ready to kidnap him at any moment?"
"I didn't!" the girl cried. "I have no idea what happened! Kidnapped, kidnapped Gratian? Are you crazy? Do you think I, a woman, have the strength to carry him away?"
"Oh. So, what's the deal with that high-voltage gun?"
"You...you went through my things!" the girl exclaimed, both shocked and furious.
"Hmph. You haven't reached the point where I need to search your things to find out what's going on. Who do you think you can fool?"
“Alright,” I interrupted them, “let’s think about how to rescue Gratian first. That’s more important.”
“Do you have a solution?” Caligula said. “Commanding battles is not my forte. But it seems to be the only way to rescue Gratian right now.”
I scratched my head. "Well... I wouldn't dare say there will be a war. But, whatever happens, we should do our best."
The students looked at me with suspicion.
"A biology student. He seems to know nothing but research," a student muttered.
"If we fail, die, or sacrifice ourselves, will you take responsibility for us?" a student asked.
"Even if I make a promise now, will I definitely keep it then? I don't know. Even if I do keep my promise, how will you, who are already dead, know whether I have kept it? Well, children, that's not important. What's important is that you want to rescue Gratian, and so do I. So, what more questions are there?"
Many years later, after I had commanded hundreds of battles, large and small, against the Galactic Empire's invasion, and people respectfully called me "General Ganymede" (in fact, I never held the rank of general; my highest rank was colonel), Estravan summarized my command style over the years as follows:
"They were adept at deception. They replaced certainty with confusion and answered questions with questions. They never said victory was certain, nor did they say they would not win. They would only say, 'Gentlemen, just do your best.' This strange way of speaking actually made the soldiers willing to die for their country. It was a miracle of the Allied forces."
"Um... I have a question, is there a zoo near the water intake?"
“Yes,” the student soldier replied. He didn’t understand why I was asking this; the children stood in neat rows, peering out and waiting for my command.
"These animals must have been starving for a long time."
"Yes."
"How pitiful," I sighed.
The students looked at each other, bewildered. They didn't understand what I was talking about: Who was pitiful? An animal that had been starving for a long time?
By the light of the incandescent bulbs in the city hall, I saw Caligula's eyebrows furrowed like sauerkraut.
His expression was too serious. He clearly didn't understand what I was trying to do.
I said, "Okay, let's split into three groups. One group will block the main gate of the water intake. Be careful not to let the Allied forces escape. Uh, of course, if they start bombarding you with cannons, you'd better run. You only have one life, so cherish it. The second and third groups will enter through the gate on the right. Yes, the right. No one needs to watch the left side; leave it clear. Okay, okay, I'll explain in detail why we're doing this..."
I had been explaining things to the children for a long time, and my mouth was dry. At that moment, I missed the coffee that Gradian had made for me; no matter how much black tea I made myself or that someone else brewed, it wasn't as good as his coffee. Lost in thought, I drifted off into a daze. Caligula slammed his boot heel on the floor and said, "Let's do as Mr. Ganimede has instructed. Let's go. First group, follow me."
"Caligula, could you wait a moment?"
"What?" He turned around.
“I…” I wanted to say, “I need a bodyguard, could you temporarily fill in?” But then I thought about how this kid must hate me now because of what happened to Geratian; he only grabbed Yang Luo and beat him but didn’t hit me, probably because he was afraid that Geratian would find out and take his anger out on him.
"It's alright. Go ahead. Be careful."
Finally, I stammered.
Caligula curled his lips into a cold smile. He left with a group of student soldiers.
——tbc——
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