Chapter 3: Regression

           Vela had almost reached the security office tower. There were just a few more blocks to go. He thought that it was odd that there were no other people out. Usually, there were at least a handful of people walking about the streets, stepping in and out of the small shops, or simply just meandering about to get out of the house for a few hours. There was a crunching or crackling noise behind him-- no; it was a scuffling sound. It was the sound of someone walking through the remnants of straw that had been lost from the loaders on thee cobblestone streets on their way to the square for The Gathering. He stopped and cocked his head to one side, straining to hear the noise. When he thought he'd identified the direction it was coming from, he turned that way. No one was there.

           Vela continued on his way, only he was more cautious this time. He felt his senses heighten, especially his hearing. He was moving a little slower down the street this time. There it was again... the scuffling sound again. It was closer now, and now, when he stopped walking, the scuffling did not stop. He waited as long as he could wait, all the while holding still, and when he could stand it no more, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. He quickly turned around, and dropped to one knee, drawing his side arm. It wasn't a lethal weapon, but the stun solution that was normally only ever used on a ceffyl would be more than adequate to stop any human assailant.

           When he stopped moving, with stunner raised at arm's length, he held still and waited for his eyes to detect movement. There was nothing, but while he was on his knee with his stunner raised and aimed at nothing but air, he heard the scuffling again, but behind him in the direction he had been traveling. Now Vela was starting to get worried. First the unearthly scream he had heard from the Great Ceffyl back at the square, the fact that no one was out and about on his entire route back to work, and now, what seemed to be someone following him that seemingly had the power to be in more than one location at once, but no where at the same time. He was scared; he didn't know what to do now.

           “Who's there!?” Vela spoke timidly, at a volume just above that of a normal speaking voice. “Is someone there?” With his left hand, he started to feel for his radio in his left pocket, and as he did so, he felt the hand of someone placed lightly on the nape of his neck. The hand was cold, and as it rested on his neck, he closed his eyes, and slowly lowered the stunner, and pulled his hand out of his left pocket, leaving the radio untouched.

           “I never thought this day would come. Not in a million years,” said Mendel. “You're looking well, Brother.”

           “M-, Mendel? It can't be you... They said you were dead, well missing or disappeared. We looked for you for a very long time! Where have you been for the last nine thousand years!?”

           Vela was now back on his feet, and turning to face the man who had placed his hand on the back of his neck. He was hardly prepared for what he saw. Mendel was now very thin, and his skin white, and had almost a paperish look to it; thin, and almost brittle. Vela could clearly see the largest veins and arteries in his brother's face, as well a mixed look of anger and extreme fatigue. Did he detect a twinge of sorrow in Mendel's eyes?

           “I'm sorry, Vela, I had to leave.”

           “What do you mean you had to leave? You left your wife and child behind on Earth. Left them to die with the rest of us who had no where to go. NASA discovered the space ship missing, the one they called the star jumper. You were the only member of the senior science team that had access to it twenty-four hours a day, unsupervised. Of course it didn't work, so they weren't sure how.... wait. Did it work? Did you find a way to make it work?”

           “I don't know, you tell me. You were working security that day,” Mendel said.

           “We didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. The ship was simply there one minute, and gone the next. Tesserotation was just a theory, not a science. Nobody could believe that it was actually possible, and you were the only explanation for the disappearance.”

           “Vela, I need you to stop and think a minute. What reason could I have possibly had that would have taken me away from Cassie and the baby? I didn't want to leave! Think about it!”

Vela stood there and let the anger course through has veins. It had been over nine thousand years since that day when Mendel had “abandoned” Cassie and their two year old daughter, Ara. Not to mention the fact that he himself had lost his best and longest time friend from off the face of the Earth with no warning. When he couldn't stand the thought of it anymore, he let the words come flying from his mouth, like a handful of fiery darts aimed at Mendel's eyes.

           “Mendel, there's nothing you could possibly have discovered that could ever justify leaving your wife and child, and the only brother you ever had. You were my true and only friend, too. You left us with nothing. You went away, and left them to fend for themselves, and left me in a dark place, Mendel! The government did nothing for your family after you left. They considered you a thief, a cheat, and a traitor. Cassie was exiled, and Ara taken from her, for her never-ending belief that you'd done nothing wrong. She said you couldn't have simply stolen the jumper, and she always believed that you must have had a very good reason. So, YOU tell ME what you could possibly have found out that is worth the price of losing your family, no, LEAVING your family behind without so much as a phone call to explain why!!!”

           “Wait, what... what did you say about Ara? She was taken from Cassie? What happened to her? Where is she now?” Mendel asked frantically, raising his voice from a whisper to stern, commanding voice.

           “No. You don't just get to come here after all these years and demand to know what happened to them. Where were you when they needed you? You act like you need them now, yet, you have been absent from them for nine THOUSAND YEARS, you ungrateful piece of trash! How could you conceive of doing such a thing!” Vela was in a frenzy at this point. All the emotions of everything that had gone wrong in his life, which he blamed on Mendel leaving, were rising to the surface in a perfect storm of anger and sadness.

           “Vela! Stop this madness. I'm here now, and I want to make this right. I've finally found a way to come back, and leave the problems I left for then behind us all.”

           “US? You have the audacity to include yourself, and shift this hateful act onto me, and Cassie, and... and to your innocent daughter? You must be truly mad. I once thought I knew you; well, that's certainly not the case now. There were times over the years when I thought I could feel your thoughts, or hear you in the next room. I would go to work and expect that at any moment, you might simply walk around the corner in your lab coat, just like you did every morning when you came to work.”

           “OK, I see that what I've done has caused you to have some issues with me, but this is hardly the time, or the place to have this kind of a discussion. Why don't we go to your home, and I'll explain everything to you..” Mendel conciliated. “Let's go. It's dark, and somebody might hear what I have to say, and then it all might start over again. But, if we go now, and I tell you what's happened, you might be able to help me end all this, and then I can find Cassie, and Ara, and then we can all be a family again!”

           “No. That's not going to happen. You simply cannot waltz back into my life right now, and expect everything to be hunky-dory between us. To say nothing of Cassie or Ara. You have no right. You gave all that up the moment you disappeared.”

           Vela, was on the verge of tears. He also knew that he had to get Mendel to leave him alone and go back to, well, wherever it was he came from. Probably that stupid hunk of space junk he'd been traipsing around space in for the last nine thousand years. He also didn't want Mendel to come home and find that he had taken Ara in, and she had taken him, as her surrogate father, when Cassie had been imprisoned for not staying away from NASA. Cassie had pestered them, day in and day out, convinced that NASA was somehow behind Mendel's disappearance.

           “Come on, Vela! Let me come home with you and I'll try to find a way to make things up to you, reunite with the only people in the entire universe that share my same blood!” Mendel was scared now. His world was beginning to collapse around him, and he wasn't sure if there was anything that he could do stop it from happening.

           “No. That's the end of it. I let go of you a long time ago, and I'm not about to go through it all again.” Vela was over the pain, and was getting angry with Mendel, and defiant.

           “Please, Vela! Let me ask your forgiveness—repent of the evil I've perpetrated against those I love!!!” Mendel was down on the ground now, practically grovelling under such a mental torment he didn't think he could live through it.

           “No. Mendel, I loved you once-- respected you and even revered you. I can't do it anymore. Go back where you came from, or rather, back where you've been hiding for eternity. Now, all Vela could think about was Ara, his brother's daughter whom he had raised as his own. Ara had long since grown to adulthood, married, and had children of her own. When she was thirty-seven, her family had gotten into a tragic accident that had killed her husband and three children upon impact. She had spent three years in asylum recovering from another devastating loss. Ara had never gotten over her father leaving her without saying “goodbye.” Now, she had returned home to live with her adopted father, Vela. She loved him as if he were really her father. Vela could not bear to reintroduce into her life the man who had caused the pain and anguish that ruled her life. She was home right now, watching the television and waiting for The Gathering to begin, just many other Rosalans were at that very moment.

           Mendel woke with a start. He lifted his head slightly, looking around his dark bedroom, finding the only source of light, a small round circle on the wall glowing in simulated moonlight from a nonexistent window. He was soaking wet as was his bed from the cold sweat that covered his body.

           “That can't have just been a dream. It was too real...” Mendel said under his breath.

           “I'm glad to see you're awake now, Mendel. You've been tossing and turning for over an hour now. Your vitals fluctuated some, and your heart rate was running at such a rate, I was afraid I was going to have to revive you again,” said the computer.

           Mendel's form-fitting suit was equipped with all sorts of electronic devices, and among them, were small dime-sized sensors strategically placed over key points on his body. Together they formed a network that the computer could use to visualize his overall health, and in fact, could create a holographic projection of any of his biological systems.

           Mendel had once asked the computer to show him each of the different visualizations of himself. He was completely impressed by the computer's capability. The endocrine system appeared as a collection of organs and glands floating inside a pearl white skeleton. His nervous system looked like a collection of green twigs and spider webs from head to toe, and the body was visualized as what Mendel could only describe as a clear, plastic shell with a blueish hue to it. His favorite visualization was the lymphatic system, which looked like the same plastic shell with what looked like still-frame photography of a a massive red lightning storm inside, originating from several symmetrical points on his body.

           There was no need for him to review his visualizations again... he knew what was going on inside his body. Despite the fact that his entire genome had been spliced with regenerative DNA from several species of land crawling creatures on Earth mixed with the genes of half a dozen alien species with anti-aging abilities, he knew that his body was beginning to rebel against its now integrated foreign parts.

           “Menkalinan!” Mendel shouted at the computer.

           “Sir? I'm not sure I understand what you mean,” said the computer.

           “Menkalinan. That's your name. I'll call you Menkab for short. I think it's rather fitting considering the fact that you drag me all over the universe. It's an old Arabic name that means 'shoulder of the rein holder.' I'm the rein holder, and you're on my shoulder all the time, whether I want you there or not. I can't seem to get any other clothing, the kind without all the sensors and built in communication device that allows you to hear and see everything I do... all the time. So, it's only fitting that I give you that name,” Mendel explained without rising from the bed.

           “You honor me with your words, Master. I am but your humble servant and you treat me with dignity worthy of the ancient Third Star of the Five Chariots,” said the computer, with a strong Chinese accent.

           The computer was being sarcastic again, and Mendel knew it. He'd programmed it to provide interaction that was more human over the years they were in isolation together. Mendel never felt like he could stop anywhere long enough to have real companionship again, and considering his outlaw status, he knew that would never again be possible.

           “Menkab, have you you located my brother on the surface of Rasalas yet? I'm getting kind of anxious to get down there.”

           “Sir, I have already taken the liberty of finding and tracking Vela Omicron. In fact, I've recorded all of his activities for the last 24 hours. Would you like to see some footage? It will only take a moment to piece together a decent two-minute clip from the available security footage I've been able to obtain.”

           “No; I'm not sure I'm quite ready to see him again,” said Mendel, reflectively.
          “I gather from your recent nightmare that you are not looking forward to your meeting with him. You know, it's pretty much inevitable, considering that your chances of success without his cooperation are approximately 14.8%.”

           “I know that, Menkab. I wish you wouldn't keep reminding me of that fact. And for that matter, you're right. I'm absolutely not looking forward to seeing him again. I'm afraid of what he's going to say. I am not even sure if he'll give me the time of day, let alone let me win his help in overthrowing the Monarchs.... For all I know, he might be a full supporter and try to turn me in, or they might be tracking his movements all these years in hopes he'll lead them to me.”

           “There are exactly three hundred million five hundred and forty-two thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven individuals in the Fifty Galaxies that have lived in excess of five thousand years. The Monarch's computer networks report that only twenty-seven percent of them are still alive, and out of those, they've ruled out ninety eight percent as not likely to be you. Official reports list your status as 'Unable to Locate – Presumed Dead. Periodic review required.'” Menkab was entirely too precise sometimes, even with the human-like adjustments Mendel had made.

           “It's nice to know they're still worried that I'm around, even though both my brother and I have outlived almost all the others who underwent gene splicing on Earth back in the day. They've got to be watching for me more actively than that. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't be watching for me when Vela is still alive. I'm almost positive that I'll be noticed the minute I set foot on Rasalas,” Mendel remarked with a bit of fear and a lot of fatigue in his voice.

           “Very good, Sir. What preparations would you like to make before you go to the surface for your meeting with Vela?”