Branches of Longevity Challenge: The day of the meeting reveals a chance!
Coryana had updated her files about the hideout and it’s structure, after Sarin brought her back to her room and left. She was extremely excited and anxious about the meeting the following day, therefore the rest of her day was very calm. She went to bed early after dinner, so she would be rested for the meeting.
In the morning Coryana got up early and contacted Sarin right after she got ready, she was so excited she decided to skip breakfast, she wouldn‘t be able to eat anyways with all the excitement. Sarin came to pick her up shortly after, they went to the elevator using the usual path. Coryana had already memorized the way to the elevator. This time they went down, very far down, Coryana couldn’t even guess how many floors the elevator passed. After what seemed like eternity to Coryana, they arrived at the right floor. They left the elevator and walked down a narrow hallway, which was lit up in a normal bright light. At the end of that corridor was a huge door, when it opened, it revealed an enormous meeting room. There were about 60 people present in the room, Coryana was wondering if it was truly possible to change the future using a plan, that had been developed by only 60 people. We are trying to change the future, the whole world, will this really suffice? Hmm… Well, let’s hear their plan first.
It seemed as if everyone in the room was waiting for Sarins arrival. Once Coryana and Sarin sat down, they began the meeting.
A young man stood up to talk, „Good morning everyone, as you know we have been trying to perfect our plan to change the future of the engineered race. We can’t afford to fail or to make even the slightest mistake to reveal anything. If we fail or slip up, we will all be found out and that will be dangerous. But, we have gained new assets to our plan, two in fact. Our first new accomplice is Coryana Guerra. Sarin has told me, she was going to change the world all on her own, but…“, the young man adressed Coryana directly. „If you are willing to team up with us, you will not have to do this alone and our chances for success will rise significantly. So, do you want to become a part of the minority group and join our efforts to change the world? You would have to attend all of the meetings when you are at the hideout, unless you have a good reason not to, in which case we would update you later on.“
Coryana looked at Sarin, she did not expect this. Although it did make sense to her, why else would they let an outsider join their meeting, that held such importance?
Thinking about everything she had found out about the minority group, their resources, abilities and connections, she was sure, joining them could increase her chances of success. As she stood up, she was still somewhat overwhelmed by their offer, „Uhm… Wow… Sorry everyone… I’m just a bit overwhelmed.“, she took a deep breath.
„As you have already stated, the chances of success would rise significantly for all of us. Therefore I will join you, but I would like to be honest with all of you, I do not plan on staying here the whole time, I have places to go and people to find. If you agree to let me work together with you, while still following my goals of travelling to find those people, I am willing to join you. Don’t worry, my travelling is strongly connected to my plan to change the world, you will not suffer any losses if you let me go in and out of here.“ Coryana sat down once she finished speaking.
The young man looked at Sarin and smiled, „Great! Welcome to the minority group, Coryana! Oh an don’t worry about your travels, because you were meant to leave this place anyways, atleast for a certain time period. Which brings me to our second asset, we have received an important letter, well Sarin did in fact. Would you like to enlighten us all about the contents of that letter, Sarin?“ The young man took his place and waited for Sarins report.
„Of course. First of all I will tell everyone here whom the letter was sent by, Knitrias Maryana. She will be joining forces with us actively this time, but she asked us a favor. We were promised we would profit from everything she discovers and she would share her knowledge that she was accumilated over the years. To get back to the favor, she wants Coryana Guerra to stay with her and learn from her, she believes that Coryana has what it takes to surpass her.“, he looked at Coryana and smiled, he knew she had been wanting to find Dr. Knitrias Maryana as well.
Coryana was a bit in shock. Wait… What? Dr. Maryana wants to teach me? …. I don’t have to look for her anymore? How did she even know I was here? Oh… right… Bernard Williams is by her side…. Wait… Does that mean I will meet my engineers? I didn’t expect to find the first people I am looking for so easily, or rather for them to request my presence…. This is a bit much to digest… „Uhmm… well…. Sarin knows that I am looking for Bernard Williams, his wife and Knitrias Maryana, as well as my sister… I did not expect to meet so many of the people I am searching for so soon and without having to search… I will not throw away this oportunity, I’d be honored to learn from Dr. Maryana. Please accept the request in my name!“
„Great!“, the young man said. „Coryana, so far our plan has been focussing on knowing our enemy, we infiltrate labratories and do business with informants who keep us updated on how the plan of the government is supposed to be executed. At the same time others are working on how to obstruct the plans of the government. We helped you escape the lab and I have heard, you were working on an important project for the government, what were you supposed to do?“ „The last assignment I had was to find a way to prolong the life of the natural born race, to help them become superior. As we all know the lifespan of the engineered race, far surpasses the life expectancy of a natural born child. Take Professor Loomia as an example she is already 427 years old. A person from the born race, could never reach that age, without any sort of modification. But they are opposed to altering the genetic code, I was supposed to invent a drug that could make that possible.“
The man looked nervous, „I didn’t expect them to prolong the lifespan… But it makes sense, okay. Did you finish your assignment? Were you successful?“, „I was very close to succeeding, but that was also the time I discovered the recordings of Bernard Williams in my genetic code. I destroyed my entire work on that assignment before I left, it is not retrieveable! And since I was the so called genius of the lab, I am certain noone will be able to get as far as I did in a short amount of time. Additionally I am sure they will be wasting quite alot of time, trying to find a way to retrieve the data I had collected and my workprogress. That problem should still be unsolved at this point. I don’t believe we have to worry about that.
What does disturb me, is the fact that they want the natural born people to be superior and become the future, but at the same time they want to modify them. The lifespan is not the only thing they want to improve. They want to change the IQ, the physical abilities, pregnancy length and increase the learning speed. At this point they will change the born race so much, they won’t be natural anymore. They might as well just continue to engineer people exactly how they want them. At the same time, there will be difficulties arising at every corner, because they want to use drugs, rather than altering the genetic code… They will turn the born race into guinea pigs for a long time, before they even get close to their goal… I hate how we are treated, but I do not want the born race to suffer either…“, she became angry at herself and the government when she realized what they were doing.
Everyone in the room was silent and in shock, then a eldery woman raised her voice. „They have gone mad… Absolutely mad… Where is the point in having the born race, begin their lives as naturally born children, if they will be stuffed with drugs to change them? I’m no genetics expert or engineer, but doesn’t that pose a higher risk to the health of the person than altering the code?“
„That is correct.“, Coryana replied. „Which is why I want to change the future not only for us, but for everyone. The born race was raised to believe they are superior and will become the future, which lead them to arrogance and to become completely oblivious to the fact that they are being experimented on...“
„Okay, thank you very much for your information Coryana. Originally we wanted to let you in on our plan in detail, but what you just told us, forces us to change everything. The plan must be altered as fast as possible, we must adjust to this madness and save the natural born people as well. This will take some time and cooperation between you, Dr. Maryana, our informants and us. If you have any former colleagues you can think of, that could be good informants, especially in the field you were talking about, please let us know as soon as possible. For now we will contact Dr. Maryana and figure out how we can get you to her without any delay. I’m sorry for rushing you, but the situation has changed drastically…“, the young man looked around at the people present. „We have to get moving and take care of our arrangements. Getting Coryana to Dr. Maryana is our top priority right now. The meeting is closed.“
To be continued….