Book One: Allele; Chapter Five

Allele: (uh'-leel); 1. Allele Zone Disorder (AZD); One of several aberrational code configurations marked by an speckled patterning of dead pocket zones throughout the chrysalis portion of a Monad. Unlike healthy zones, allele dead zones coexist in addition to pocket zones, but do not except active code for processing. Unpredictably, allele dead zones will activate suddenly and remain functional for the remainder of the individual life cycle. This frequently occurs later in life but is not the rule. This activation is marked by a pronounced change in personality which often includes the shedding of previous psychic disorders. There is no causal evidence with which to predict when or how a monad acquires allele zone disorder. A given monad may function normally for generations before and after suffering AZD.  

2. The name given to an individual suffering with AZD. 

Harry Horst sat back in his chair, arms raised and folded back in a relaxed position with hands clasped behind his head. Despite his casual air, he was staggered by Ministry's response to Allele's material request. Not only was it all approved but the answer came only moments after he'd submitted the proposal.

He looked up from the reply and said, "I'd been given to believe that Ministry was only allowing an initial exploratory mission, yet they're giving you enough equipment to establish a major archeological research facility on site! I don't get it. I'm delighted for you, but I don't get it."

"Everything?" Lepton blurted, looking at Allele who had her elbows squarely planted on the arms of her chair, fingers interlocked thumbs kissing. She had been focused on the wide lapel of Harry's suit. She wondered why he dressed that way, like an idiot she thought, but that wasn't fair. She had a great respect for Harry and thought him a wizard at bypassing bureaucratic obstacles. That was it, he dressed like a bureaucrat. She could forgive that, he was one after all.

Despite her lack of focus she'd heard his comment on Ministry's confirmation. The news was simply no surprise to her. Developing the materials request had been a major undertaking, While the initial proposal had been an outline of the purpose, results, and possible benefits of their research, the materials request required working out the hard pragmatic details of how they would go about accomplishing those results and the supplies and equipment they would therefore need.

For all the fear and insecurity she'd felt when given the lead of the expedition, Allele floated effortlessly through the planning stages as if they didn't matter. All that mattered was getting there. They would have what they needed to do what was to be done. Her blithe air in these matters had a powerful influence on the team. It didn't inspire, nor was it contagious, but it was quieting. Whenever she weighed in on a question, all involved accepted that it would be resolved as she said, their concerns sated, their confidence shored up. They would go about their work assuming everything would be taken care of. Then another crisis would arise for them to panic over.

In the first few weeks of planning her apprehensions melted away. Eventually she only skimmed the reports delivered to her, and didn't attend very many work meetings. She would simply ask for a brief synopsis of a report of the goings on of meetings afterward. While others poured over statistical projections, she pondered the models of the riff to closely examine a particular knoll or crevasse. She would change angle a few times in deep focus on a spot until a soft smile blossomed at the corner of her mouth, and she turned away to something else. Despite her laxity, whenever approached on a subject she demonstrated full understanding, made decisive and insightful decisions, and gave effective, comprehensive directions.

In short, she directed the project with surety, but a loose and easy baton. It was a talent that surprised everyone, herself most of all. Allele had always been most confident working alone, for long hours, on obscure and arcane matters. Leader, organizer, standard bearer, had never been her forte.

Allele sat triumphant before Harry and Lepton, pondering the former's lapel. After a moment the soft smile that befuddled most colleagues curled the corner of her mouth as her eyes shifted across to meet Lepton's to chastise him for ever doubting her. With that smile Lepton understood the depth of Allele's will. For a moment he felt a certainty that what they were doing was unstoppable and a celebration of this small milestone of little importance.

"What now?" he asked.

"The next thing." She answered.

***

The process for adjusting to Samsaric  Disassociation (SD), severance from the array, was long and arduous.  Actual severance would not happen until each team member was cleared by a battery of tests and simulations. Most of the initial regimens were conducted on subconscious levels that were designed to predetermine deep rooted incompatibilities in coping with the degenerative affects of SD. The team had much to accomplish before actual severances for even momentary lengths of time would be attempted.


Even Lepton who was already certified and experienced in SD was required to undergo the full regimen as he hadn't maintained his sanction. Only a few members of his team were exempt being active volunteer Rangers. They already trained regularly in SD, and were proficient in the operation and maintenance of equipment.

The first stage of the protocol was psychological verification and clearance, Clearance Protocol Tracks (CPTs). Verification was a mere formality that enabled the system to confirm the identity and track the progress of each subject throughout the training process.

In Allele's case, the system uncovered an unusually large contiguous segment of AZD dead space in her monad. AZD itself wasn't a problem, but this was a very large area comprising nearly a third of the entire chrysalis. What's more, unlike usual AZD areas, it was filled with useless code that Ministry couldn't cipher.  She wasn't rejected but merely tagged to undergo a few special clearance tracks to ensure she had the storage capacity needed to actively participate in the surrogate SD routines in the MIBs.

Like most Alleles, Allele the was accustomed to the teasing she received because of her peculiar chrysalis configuration. When the team heard she was an extreme case old jokes were dusted off and given new life at her expense. In truth, being accused of limited capacity all her life had driven Allele on to succeed. No matter how much she proved otherwise, how many accomplishments she made, or awards garnered, nothing sated her inner doubts. This was a major part of the core of her darker nature.

In the end the CPTs proved to be a mere formality for Allele anyway. The commission found nothing to suggest she suffered psychological damage nor a lack of capacity to participate. It was rare that an individual used more than a fifth of the chrysalis in their monads anyway and Allele still had ample room. All but one member of her team cleared these hurdles without event.  


"I don't understand it," Jon whined, getting himself out of the simulation chair. Allele put her hand gently on his shoulder and coaxed him back down.

"It's okay, everyone adjusts in their own time," she assured him.

"I understand if you decide to replace me, I don't want to hold up the project. Maybe I can handle the home office work." He lay back staring furtively at the ceiling of the lab. It was two months since they'd begun training and he was still failing the CPTs. He feared that the next stage, Graduated severance therapy, would take forever. The worst part was he didn't even get to have the sensation of severance. The simulator didn't produce a sensory experience.

Conscious discomforts and adjustment was the least of the problems with severance. The simulator wasn't concerned with short term disconnection from the Samsaric Array, but with long term cognitive dissonance. It presented Jon with questions, images, sounds, smells, and fabrications of typical events, then read the litany of affects they had on his psyche.

The simulator didn't simply read his mind. As it tapped areas of his psyche it could detect frequency disturbances consistent with known problems in other subjects. It shared what it culled with Jon to help him find and understand the difficulties he experienced and, hopefully, expel them.  

"Relax," said Allele, though she knew it was useless. Something was blocking Jon and he was going to have to find it and deal with it on his own. She tried to get him to seek the help of Severance Therapists but Jon refused. She looked into making it mandatory but the therapists said it would be counterproductive. He had to get there on his own.

They recommended she find a substitute, but Allele refused. Jon was one of the few and the best cultural pathologists on Europa. It was Jon who got Allele interested in the project to begin with. It was Jon who found and organized the evidence suggesting that ruins at the center of the rift may have been a prior Ministry with an intact library.  She would not give up on him, not yet.

***

After the day's sessions Jon usually went to a restaurant in an outer circle of the city that catered to maintenance outlaborers. He frequented it to avoid contact with friends or colleagues. He didn't understand how it was possible, lone wolf that he was for the simulator to keep coming back with the same result, fear of abandonment. If anything he resented Ministry and it's intrusion on the individual psyche.

The restaurant went by the simple name "Olfacteria" and offered a limited menu of modest fare. Jon liked to sit at the counter where the owner busied herself with other customers. There was a faint odor of mildew, though he would not identify it as such, there being no mildew on Europa. He sat hunched over a ceramic Olfact cup staring at the remains of the dark liquid it held. He didn't notice the aging outlaborer, or OL, sit at the stool next to his and place a small flat green stone on the counter between them.

Without looking at Jon the OL spoke, "Odd isn't it, how one childhood accident can change your life?"

Jon didn't immediately catch that the OL was talking to him, "Pardon me?" he finally replied, woken from his thoughts.

"Childhood accidents. They change you."

"Yes, yes I guess they can. Did something happen to you?" Jon asked with a polite impatience.

"Me? No, no, normal childhood. Apprenticed to a pump station, made my grades like everyone else in town. What about you? Anything ever happen to you?" The OL asked, casually patting Jon on the shoulder.

Jon was about to say that his was the same, which he'd always thought, but then the phrase 'my grand experiment' came to mind. He wasn't sure what it meant but a memory was beginning to resurface.

"There was one thing," he said after a moment. "I was very young. I remember thinking myself brave."

"Didn't we all back then?" replied the OL.

"Yes, but some of us did stupid things," said Jon.

"Like dive into the Firth," the OL said, finishing the thought Jon couldn't complete himself.

"Like dive into the Firth." Jon repeated, the memory blooming full and powerful as if it happened moments before. "What an idiot I was. I'd been warned not to, but had to see what it would be like."

"That must've been terrible," said the OL, turning around on his stool to look out the windows behind them.

"It was more than terrible," Jon continued trance-like, reliving the horror, "when I hit the surface the cross current was so strong it ripped my arm clean off. The pain was horrific."

"How'd you keep control?"

"I didn't. I was in a total panic. Didn't know what to do. The water swept me under dragging me along the bottom of the outer bank. I think I must've been pulled a third of the way around the city before I had a coherent thought. My clothes were pulled off. Whenever I hit the embankment flesh was torn and then the water would scour the wound stripping any loose skin away. Breathing water that ripped apart my insides." Jon spoke as if in a trance, reliving the horror somewhere deep in memory.

"How long were you down there?" asked the OL, as if delivering the next in a series of prepared questions.

"It was believed to be five hours. As I said I was young and panicked. I never thought to signal for disassembly."

"Is that so?" the OL prodded.

"No. No not really. There was something else."

"What?"

"I was ashamed. I didn't want to be discovered. Didn't want the humiliation of having done such a stupid thing. I feared my parents would never forgive me. I didn't know what to do. I wanted Ministry to leave me down there. Just forget me and let me wash away into silt." Jon stared wide eyed at the wall in front of him as he made his confession.

 The two men faced opposite directions, not looking at each other. The OL kept his attention out the windows. Io was skipping across the sky only slightly above the peeks of the curving Scimitar Ridge that blocked the horizon. His gaze followed the tiny moon along its course. After a few moments silence to allow the memory to firmly reestablish itself in Jon's mind, he spoke, "Five hours. That takes fortitude I'll give you that. Holding on, hiding from Ministry until finally knocked unconscious by an outcrop of ice you'd missed the first fourteen full rotations along the Firth's course."

"I didn't hide from Ministry! Ministry knew, it had to know. It left me there, let me tumble and choke. The pain was searing, I lost my mind that day. Ministry stole it from me. I was in rehab for eight months before I could even remember my name. You can't trust it, it will just leave you there to rot." Jon was visibly trembling by the time he finished his rant.

The OL turned on his stool toward Jon, "And, now you rebel against Ministry by pretending to resent what you call its intrusions as a defense against your fear that it will abandon you again."

Jon looked down at the counter. Tried to make sense of the random pattern imprinted on its surface, spoke to the chaos in front of him,"It left me there."

"It isn't allowed to make decisions for you, it leaves control of your actions to you, even when young and foolish. All you had to do was tell it what you wanted," the OL explained. "It didn't abandon you. It obeyed you. This is common knowledge." he finished with a sigh.

"How can I overcome this?" asked Jon.

"You just did," answered the OL, patting him again and adding, "Remember, there's no reason not to explore whatever you come across. You'll be safe. You'll be fine." The old man's eyes were sad but Jon wasn't looking at them. It wouldn't matter if he had. The OL picked up the stone and put it back in his pocket. In a few minutes Jon would forget the conversation.

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Four

Bendway High Capacity Single Arch Public Entanglement Transport: 

Overview: The Bendaway High Capacity SAPET is a medium capacity entryway/security system that meets the needs of level 4, A class residential properties. It has .55 millisecond time compression that is more than ample for the typical .0278 millisecond reconstitution transfer time and .3945 millisecond security clearance scans that close the gap so users will not sense any time delay through use. Redundant Warble dampeners ensure minimal disorientation and transfer inbalance. Your tenants need not break stride to step from lobby to penthouse level in one step. Even up to four of them arm in arm. Thanks to Bowlsey net recalibration, maintaining net projection continuity during location jump is not a problem.

Specifications: Maintains maximum load Capacity to accommodate high volume transference between Master interface to and from up to fifty-five sub locations at a rate of thirty six events per minute between unique locations with an additional load of eight percent for common events. Can handle up to four simultaneous events between common locations without danger of matter-aberration. Features Warble delay for multiple location overlap to maintain sensory continuity despite cueing or security delays. Utilizes Bowlsey Net recalibration.

Sita Gravtech got into a cab after the meeting. Her friends were waiting for her at Club Frazil. Peter, the entanglement engineer she'd been seeing, would be there and she wanted to see him, but she wasn't sure she was up for light entertainment with what was going down. She'd just agreed to do participate in the expedition to the Rift and she wasn't sure she'd made the right decision. She needed time alone to think, to digest, to restructure, to prepare. She wondered how one prepares for such a strange journey. She would have to share some truths about herself that were private, not just with her close colleagues, but with the entire crew including Peter. Not that he really mattered, but he was a distraction that may be played out. At present he was what she needed. But tonight? She didn't know what she wanted to do tonight.

The cab asked where she wanted to go for the third time, "Home. Just take me home," she sighed.  No point in going out. She would be too distracted and wasn't yet sure how much she could share with people. Allele said Ministry wanted the project kept quiet. Did that mean it was officially a secret project? She didn't trust Ministry to look out for their welfare. Once Allele's group found out whatever Ministry wanted, what better way to keep it quiet than wipe the members of the team? Sita and the rest of the team might go on with their lives like nothing happened. The thought was vile, a defilement on par with being  proxy raped. 

Sita's anxiety grew, her resolve stressed nearly to breaking when Jon contacted her, "Sita! Can you imagine it? Getting set loose from Ministry? This is incredible. Nobody gets to do that. "

"People get to do that, Jon," Sita answered, annoyed.

"Yes, but only rangers, and for short periods of time for specific actions," chided Jon.

"I'm uncomfortable with it."

"Are you uncomfortable with getting to examine a site that possibly dates back to Europan Origins?" he asked.

"No, that's pretty compelling," she admitted.

"No anthropologist has ever been severed from Ministry before. We may learn as much from the experience as from the dig itself," he added.

"That's because you're a cultural pathologist, Jon. I'm not so sure," Sita grumbled

Sita's work was related to Somentity logistics. She was trying to find the reasoning behind the mechanism of Somentity functions. She had questions about the need for certain senses. Sight, temporal cognition, and hearing made sense in that they were needed to navigate through physical spacetime, but olfactory, hunger, sexual sensation, even love seemed unnecessary. Though pleasant or dominating, they served no survival need that anyone had yet determined. If they were vestigial, vestigial of what? She hoped answers may lie in the libraries of a prior Ministry, if any of it survived.

Jon sighed, "One thing is certain, if there is anything out there worth finding it will be found by 

someone, if you want that to be you, you won't get another chance."

"I did say yes." Sita said.

"Yes, but you need to be okay with it. The adjustment regimen to prepare for severance can be slow or quick depending on our attitude. I'm worried you'll choke. You need to relax. Get your mind off it and it will go easier."

 "Jon, worry about Jon." She replied

"Okay, I'm a little worried too. I'm just saying don't over think it. Ministry hasn't lost anyone yet. The rangers have made the system foolproof."  

The cab reached Sita's Apartment Building on the inner rim of the fourth ring of the seven rings of the city of Cirque Sept. She sat in the cab thinking about getting an opportunity like this. It was true, there wouldn't be another. If they find what they're looking for or not, her career depended on her willingness to try. Otherwise, it would devolve into managing a research branch of some minor historical society. She would barely be able to afford a fifth ring apartment, not even one in an upper tier. She could even be pushed out to the sixth if she wasn't careful. 

She ended with Jon and told the cab to wait. She decided Club Frazil and Peter was what she needed. It would push her fears behind her. Now rushed, she strode quickly into her building. The cold blue light that flooded the lobby meant she would arrive at the club after dinner hour. It would be rude to eat a full meal there, but she was hungry. It was a stressful day and she needed to replenish. She would have to eat something while cloaked.

 The lobby was empty and her nearly ran straight through the lobby's bendway and down the thirtieth floor hallway to her apartment.  She lived in a typical dual-phase complex apartment. The inside of her apartment and the other apartments on the floor were desynchonized from the public spaces that accessed them. Her home was somewhat larger than it would seem in that it's layout overlapped the hallway she'd just rushed down and other public areas. Whether in the hall or the apartment, one had no sense of the other overlapping space. 

Immediately upon entering, Sita threw on her changing cloak, set it for her preferred evening attire and went to the kitchen to fix something to eat. The cloak indicated that she needed at least 12 ounces of base matter. She asked the pantry to make her a 10 ounce favorite savory which she devoured at the kitchen table and washed down with a few mouthfuls of Relix-10r. The purple liquid complimented the savory nicely. Between the food and the drink she would satisfy her cloak requirement plus a little for reserve.

When she finished eating, she took the rest of her drink into the living room and sat by a window to wait out the cloaking regimen. She looked out at the inner rings of the city. She lived in the inner of the two professional rings. From her vantage point she looked directly across at the Doctoral third ring where Lepton lived, and Allele would live if she hadn't taken the place outside of the city.   

Inner rings were narrower but higher than their outer neighbors. Sita could see some of the second Socio-Politic ring, and even had a glimpse of the first Europan ring that encircled Ministry. Conversely from her bedroom she saw the lower rings, comprised of the fifth: 

Professional/Administrative, sixth: Artisan/Technical, and seventh: Outlabor rings. Surrounding the whole was the farther Worker plain. As she finished her drink she wondered if the rift expedition would secure her doctorate and allow for a move across the way. 

Her cloak indicated she was complete. She finished her drink, removed the cloak, checked that all was right. Her hair now straight and a little longer with gold tips, simple black dress, diamondized fingernails, and turquoise eye color. She was barefoot as was the fashion, her ears enhanced with a slight point to hear better in loud rooms. Otherwise her facial features remained unchanged. She was ready.

The cab took a cross ring avenue near Sita's apartment so most of the ride was along Firth Drive that separated the fourth and fifth rings of the city. A rapid river called the Firth of Thrash separated the rings. Water was pumped at tremendous force to keep it from freezing. The rushing whitewater was both beautiful and dangerous. Although Ministry simply reconstituted the Somentity projection of anyone who fell into the rushing river, pain was still a factor that usually required extended therapy to overcome.   

The cab rounded the curve into the ring's Disportment and Repose Quarter, or the D and R, that housed clubs, theaters, stadiums, and other recreational facilities for the enjoyment of the Professional class and their guests. In the distance Sita spotted the cantilevered dance floor of Club Frazil that jutted out over Waterside Drive and the river itself at the entrance to the Spiral Crossover that Bisected the entire D and R served as its main drag." 

The cab dropped her off at the club entrance. She had told Peter she would meet him at the bar if she could make it and so found a seat and ordered a drink. She had an agreement with Peter not to use comms to arrange their rendezvous as the uncertainty of prior arrangements was more romantic. She knew he'd be checking in at the bar regularly and settled in to wait. She found an empty seat at the bar and leaned over the counter to gain the bartender's attention. There was a faint odor of wet concrete as after a rain, though she would not recognize it, there being no concrete nor warm enough conditions for rain on Europa.  

There was a man sitting at the chair beside her that she hadn't noticed before. He removed a small green stone from his pocket and placed it on the bar between them, then turned to her as she looked past him to search for Peter.

"Sita." he said with a plain but deliberate tone as if he expected her to give him her complete attention without question.

"Yes?" she answered without wondering who he was or how he knew her.

"It would be well for you to let Allele go after Jon," he told her. She looked more closely at him as he spoke. She felt locked to his gaze and only when he'd finished did she notice he'd been holding her wrist as he spoke. He was an older man with gentle features that inspired trust in her as if he were her spiritual advisor. 

"Well, yes I suppose I should," she replied.

"That's good, very, very good." He said and looked down breaking their eye contact.

Peter sat down at her other side, "I like the hair and nails, what's the occasion?"

Sita turned toward him, "Peter."

"Yes, Are you okay Sita?" he asked.

"I'm fine.This man was telling me something."

"Who?" he asked looking past her. She turned to find an empty seat where he'd sat. 

"There was a man. He said something to me," she answered, slightly dazed

"I didn't see anyone," Peter said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"No? I mean yes, I'm fine. Now I don't know. Maybe I was day dreaming."

Peter gave her a puzzled look, "There's a first time for everything I guess. Come on, we're all outside."

They got up and headed toward the terrace. Neither of them noticed the man still sitting at the bar

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Three

All human life is built upon three pillars, the Soul, the Self, and the Skein. Through the subset complexs  of these systems unique psychological (Sentient) and corporeal (Sensory)  assemblages are created in endless combination. These assemblages combine to constitute the encoding of each individual's Sensience Monad. These Monads are the only truly physical form a person has. Since the Sentient and Sensory assemblages are merely systems that interpret the content of the three pillars they require a linkage to the pillars housed within the Samsaric Array at Ministry's core. In the array all of Europa's sensient ancestry percolates in a collective pool. The maturation and experience of all decommissioned human entities disassemble within the array to feed it with new intellectual and emotional variables. All cultural sense, morals, ethics, and social mores are maintained by the array to provide a foundation for that deeper sense of self that is separate from the personal. 

from The Epistles to the Permutive

Allele's perception of worth, responsibility, and interconnectivity with humanity was informed by the Array. It gave the undefinable "gut" element crucial in determining her every action, and decision. It was the shadow behind every opinion, hope, fear, and a plethora of other emotional and rational needs any individual must have to feel whole and function effectively.

A secondary system within the Array was a sensitivity mesh that, on a subconscious level, interconnected every one of the five hundred seventy-two thousand human entities that always had and always would inhabit Europa. These primary and secondary systems combined to imbue individuals with their sense of empathy and compassion. Nobody ever felt totally alone or neglected. Disconnection from the Array is what Harry meant by the use of isolation units.
If Allele were brutally honest with herself she would admit that her initial reaction to Harry's news was delight, but the gravity and danger involved smothered that excitement. Even as a child the idea of being set loose from the array seemed a grand adventure where she might explore new inner truths and invent some revolutionary philosophy to uncover a new way to live, love, and perceive the world.
As she grew, discovery placed less of a roll in her fascination with the idea. To simply be alone grew like a pearl of desire in her ego. As life was she could only shut her comms and her door during the high holiday, that inner sense of connection to the community could not be escaped. It ground on her own sense of self. Its nurturing quality became cloying, its beneficent intent resented. She could not understand how everyone else she knew could go about day to day content in knowing they were continually and inexorably tied the rest of the human race as if by...another one of those words...a leash.

It was because of this inner sense and the desire to escape the depression they produced that Allele so vigorously threw herself into her work. Distracting her attention with the extraverted nature of embarking on an enterprise. The study of things outside herself, different from herself, and unknown could come close to drowning out the noise of connectedness. Anthropology was the natural career for her. She could devote her entire professional attention to social and cultural differences within the population at present and as it changes with generations. She hoped that by studying past trends and mores she could develop a schema to predict future change. Certainly a useful tool to predict and possibly avoid repeating destructive downturns like those suffered in the past, but for Allele it was also a way to gain some control of her nemesis. Another phrase...vive la différence...there were many in connection to these feelings. She longed to live with change and the prison she felt within grew tighter with time.

Allele's social life was even more dictated by her frustrations and depression. She had few friends, mostly professional colleagues. The strongest social impact was her inability to maintain a long term love interest. She gained several reputations depending on who was asked. She was seen as everything from a tease, a femme fatale, heartless, damaged, an eater of hearts, or simply toxic. For one thing her obsession with her work always drove a wedge in her relationships. The men and women who managed to draw out the lust in her felt tossed around like some belonging that she only payed attention to when it suited her. They would hear nothing from her for days even weeks when suddenly she would appear at their door wanting them immediately. Her love making was furious as if filling a long dying thirst.

She ruined her lovers. They quickly grew addicted to her. She was never the same twice with them, always finding, deeper, agonizing intensity, in which to submerge their involvement. It was her lovers who fell back exhausted, never Allele. She made repeated attempts and demands to bring them back but she could never finish in her core. No matter the number, longevity, or intensity of the explosions they managed to trigger in her she found her self wanting. She would sit in a chair in the corner of the room, watch her lover sleep, and feel empty. Something was always missing.
Once she tried for a lasting relationship. They played house, her lover was a historian, Magdalena, who also had a deep passion for the holiday of Europa's Tear. They spent most of their time at Allele's home. Magdalena was naturally beautiful and rarely bothered to enhance her appearance. Allele found that honesty refreshing, though she wished Magdalena did it for its honesty and not through arrogance. They'd sit for hours talking about the vista from Allele's patio and usually ended the night making love on the patio's stone floor.

In the beginning they never ran out of things to talk about, their words punctuated with light strokes, the squeeze of clasped hands, and a close examination of the eyes just before kissing. Allele was awed by Magdalena's self confidence, but as time went on she began to see that it came, as with most people, from reliance on the sensitivity mesh of the Array. Eventually Magdalena's gaze felt like being staring at by the crowd.

Finally one night instead of going home Allele went into the city, found an orgy, and put herself in the center of it. When they were at the height of their frenzy she called Magdalena and made her watch. Later, she went home to a trashed and empty house, but felt free. She promised herself she would never do that to another person again and avoided romances from then on.

That night she'd found a side effect she hadn't expected. She felt best in the company of strangers, and not just sexually. She began spending more time in public where her separateness and anonymity in a crowd made her feel less smothered. Attended sports events that she had no interest in, Struck up light conversation with strangers in cafes, went to dance halls, slept with no less than three lovers at a time. She kept her personal life private. Neither Jon, Lepton, nor Sita knew anything of her forays into the night city.

  Despite its far reaching effect, Allele failed to see the connection between her personal social preferences and her obsession with individualism which she thought purely intellectual. Thus her intrigue with being isolated was quickly buried in her subconscious, which distracted her with an inordinate concern for the dangers her team would face, and the dangers were real and many.

An archeological dig the scale Allele and her colleagues were planning would mean regular severance from the array over the course several years. Physically, severance was a simple matter of removing the team's Sensience monads from their individual pneuma interpreters that linked to the Samsaric array within Ministry. First the internal link to the pneuma interpreter and the external link to the individual's Somentity (Somatic Entity) interpreter that spoke to Ministry's planetary blanketing system, located on the opposite endcaps of the monad needed to be bypassed with a transfer pack.  To accomplish this the pack was attached to secondary linkages on the sides of both of the monad's endcaps.

The transfer pack was referred to as the "Waiting Room" since it supplied a temporary virtual sense of soul that, though limited, kept the subject being removed from losing all cognitive anchoring. If that were to happen the subject might not be able to be reassembled leaving them a virtual non entity.  Once attached a release button was pressed, and the monad would rotate free of its mount with a click, to be installed into a multiple isolation billet, or MIB unit, with the other monads of the team, and use mobile onsite projection towers to establish themselves at the rift.

Allele and every other human being on Europa was an expression of their individual monad. A monad was no larger than a typical thumb yet an individual's entire conscious and sub conscious mind was held in only a portion of it called the chrysalis. In addition monads held and executed the functions associated with complex Somentity templates along with the Skein encoding that entwined physical and mental, that she would think of as being herself. What was once called the Id and Ego, the matrices that constitute knowledge, wisdom, emotions and their triggers, as well as her memory algorithms, all resided in the chrysalis portion of her sensience monad.

Her physical characteristics were also incorporated into her monad. Her base characteristics acted as a filter through which all interaction with the outside world was expressed and interpreted, passing data to and receiving from Ministry's Somentity interpreter. The interpreter transferred her every gesture and desired adaptation of her physical appearance to her Somentity projection within the planetary blanketing system while providing persona entanglement synthesis, or PES, so that she had the sense of living inside her projected Somentity.

When Allele eventually reached maturation she would be decommissioned and her sum experience and developed acuity would disassemble and her saturated building blocks would be incorporated into her core family ancestry that would provide the primary templates for future tenants of her monad and that of her two siblings.

Right now she was looking at the possibility of that never happening, and the decision to allow herself to be transferred to an isolation unit meant that her family could be reduced to two monads if something went wrong. Her mental safety, her monad's safety, her very existence would depend on the competence of Ministry technicians.

Of the many technical dangers it was Pareidolic Dementia that worried her most. Although isolation units incorporated synthetic samsaric routines that acted as surrogates to assuage the need for connectivity and spiritual depth, they had their limits, and extended reliance on them took a toll on the psyche. Without real archetypes and existential paradigms the mind would begin to fabricate them on its own, interpreting the chaos irrationally to find motivations and moral strictures to fill holes in the soul with belief systems that made no sense.  If left indefinitely Pareidolic Dementia could do permanent damage becoming full blown Pareidolic Psychosis. These concerns were very much on her mind as they were at the heart of her secret obsession. She left Harry's office to find Lepton still waiting for her.

Lepton. she should marry Lepton, she thought, and live happily ever after. "Can't keep away from me can you?" she said teasing him.

"Not when you do such a good job of keeping my future in your hands," he answered.

"Don't kid yourself, you don't mean that much to me, but if I decide to accept this project I'm going to need a good Archaeological team, and you're handy."

"I figured my job was secure. I see they simply want you to head the team," he said, then realizing what Allele said, added, "What do you mean, 'IF' you decide to accept?"

"There's a lot I don't like about the plan. Not just your diminished involvement," she answered.

"Like what?"

"To start, no blanketing at the site. We're isolating. Mobile Tower projectors, zip braces, the whole bit." They'd been standing in the middle of the empty waiting room. Lepton sat down. He didn't look for a chair but sat on the end table behind him.

"I did that once. It's no fun."

"I can imagine, and with a project like this..."

"...it's going to be slow going." Lepton interjected.

"Yes," she acknowledged.

"Well, where do we go from here?" he asked, slapping his knees.

"I want to bring our people together and go over this at length. I don't want to break up my team over this and I don't think you do either. If we can all talk it out together I think everyone will be on board. The sooner we start the better."

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; ChapterTwo

Chapter Two

The Hadrian Rift Collapse is estimated to have occurred approximately 30,000 years before the establishment of the current epoch. Evidence suggests that extensive ice mining at the site prior to the catastrophe was its root cause. Remnants of a vast grid of high volume ice wells within the rift's internal plain are still clearly visible despite the collapse. Why ice was being dropped into space so prolifically remains a mystery. What sparked the collapse remains undocumented.
The catastrophe left a canyon nearly two miles deep that spans over eighteen hundred geodesic miles on the outer, Anti-Jovic, hemisphere of Europa.
Popular legend claims an early Ministry was located at the center of the grid. No physical evidence of this exists, nor are there any references to such a Ministry in any known historical record.


Eighteen hundred geodesic miles was the statistic Allele couldn't get out of her mind as she sat in Harry Horst's waiting room the next day. Studies of ancient progressive satellite maps of the region made over a span of five hundred years after the collapse  indicated two or three locations of interest, but further surface deterioration put their locations in doubt. Unidentified articulates that could be debris from a prime facility seemed to drift out from a central location, but could be simply caused by the natural ice flow. If the evidence found with Lepton's help proved false she would need to porto-scan the entire site. That could take decades.
The project was originally Lepton's. He invited Allele along to interpret the cultural and social significance of artifacts for better understanding of what was uncovered and to help predict probable locations of secondary sites.
Her expedition was to be adjunct to his. As an anthropomorphist she hoped to establish an accurate date of the event to better calculate the impact on subsequent social evolution, better gauge cultural drift, in order to predict and recognize impending epochal events. How she would orchestrate an expedition of this magnitude without Lepton involved enflamed Allele's self doubt. She fixated on Ministry's possible motives for crippling the project by giving her soul responsibility.
As Allele sank into quiet despair Lepton entered the waiting room and sat next to her, "Have you spoken to Harry about this mess yet?"
Allele was too weighed down by the disaster she was facing to be surprised by Lepton's sudden presence, and simply looked up at him and answered, "No."
She was glad to see him but his presence puzzled her, "I'm glad you came. I didn't think you'd be talking to me. I'm more surprised than..."
"I know," Lepton cut in, "back stabbing is not your style."
"Lep, how can we possibly work around this?"
Harry Horst appeared at his office door. Both Allele and Lepton began to rise. Harry looked at Lepton and held up his hand, "Sorry. Just Allele, Lepton. This is an official briefing and can only involve the Expedition's Principal," he said using his official tone, though they'd worked together developing the expedition criteria for the past two years. Warning off any retort from Lepton, Harry gave a slight wave of his hand.
Allele turned to Lepton, "I'll keep you informed as much as I am allowed." Lepton nodded and stayed back. Allele walked into Harry's office as if to her own execution. Once inside she turned on Harry, "What's going on here Harry? What is Ministry trying to do, undermine our work, turn it into a circus?"
Harry held up his hand in a gesture to silence her. He said nothing for a moment, but looked deeply into Allele's eyes to make sure she gave him undivided attention. When he spoke he spoke slowly and deliberately to insure that Allele listened to his words intently, "Allele, this is the first official briefing between Ministry and the Primary Executive of the Archeological Expedition to Hadrian Rift," Allele went to speak but Harry hushed her again and went on, "As managing agent for Ministry concerning this project I am not allowed to give my opinion, nor direct advice to you or any other members of your team. As a trustee of Ministry I must maintain disinterest."
"I understand," answered Allele.
"Good. That said, Allele, the only thing I can do is ask questions." He put extra emphasis on the last phrase. Allele perked up looking quizzically at Harry who returned her expression with a playful glint in his eye and continued, "We understand each other then. As is standard practice all meetings between you and Ministry are archived for record. My job is to expedite your requests and make sure they are in keeping with the purpose and limits of the approved Archeological expedition."

≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠

Harry emphasized the word 'Archeological'. Allele nodded in recognition.He was not referencing Anthropology as the primary topic of investigation.
"Where do we begin?" asked Allele.
"Personnel is a good indicator of the scope of a project." Harry answered.
Allele thought a moment, "Well, the application outlined my team. Jon, Sita, and myself."
"You mean Jon Slake and Sita Gravtech." Harry corrected, neither of Allele's assistants having the advanced credentials needed to drop their sectional names.
"Yes," replied Allele reluctantly. She felt the practice unfair as both her assistants were as well versed in their fields as any credentialed professional like herself. Sita was well on her way to an upper percentile. Jon maybe too someday.
"Ministry's way, Allele. Just formality," Harry said dismissively. "Your application outlined your team alone, but Ministry changed the project scope. You were originally adjunct to Lepton's proposal. Ministry has placed you in charge."
Harry walked around behind his desk and sat down, indicating the chair opposite to Allele. His words hit Allele all at once. Ministry wasn't undermining the expedition, it simply wanted her to be Prime Executor. Lepton's proposal lay open on Harry's desk.
"Ministry understands that alterations to your application will be essential to the success of your endeavor." Harry said officiously as he pushed the proposal across the desk toward Allele and pointed to the heading on the page it was opened to.
COMPREHENSIVE PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS
Allele looked at the list.  "I see," she said, still looking at the list. "Let's begin with the Archeological team which I see spearheaded by Lepton and his people. We'll need excavation crews and other ancillary support teams. As this development is new to me I'd like to take some time to review my new requirements and get back to you in a day or two. Is that satisfactory?"
"Yes," answered Harry, "that's how I see it too. This is a new responsibility for you, take time to coordinate and call my office when you are ready to schedule an appointment." Allele rose to thank him.
Harry didn't stand, "One last thing, Ministry will not be able to provide blanketing coverage inside the rift. Your team will have to use isolation units and standing range projectors. I suggest keeping your team numbers down. The less of that we do the better. You can have a few zip braces too in case they're needed." For the first time Harry made sure his eyes did not meet Allele's.
Allele collapsed back into her chair, "You have got to be kidding me!"
"I was as shocked as you when I saw the directive." Harry said in apology.
"Directive?" Allele repeated.
"Yes, it isn't that they can't. They won't. It's a policy decision not a technical necessity." Harry explained.
"Why won't they? What's going on?"
"The official explanation is Disinfection."
"Disinfection. As in protection against plague."
"Pretty much," concluded Harry.
Allele felt a new fear creep in. Trepidation about doing something dangerous, something only done for the most extreme emergency, she could accept, but there was a different flavor to this. A hidden danger she couldn't decipher. A new strange word she didn't understand entered her mind and seemed to name her situation. As she left Harry's office she said it out loud, "Bait!"