45. A.E.P's (Aribu ExperimentalProducts)

    Traditionally, the Gen R&D happened primarily on the Island of Gorias because sometimes these sorts of experiments didn't turn out so well. The Gora Lab was well suited for the laboratory given it's unique location; tucked away on the southern most tip of Gorias, out of sight from fragile eyes. 

        Today, Halki god of War, Malodon god of Transformation and Seton god of Medification had gathered in Gora to witness the results of the new, modified medification, and to witness the final experiment: testing it on AEP’s, the Aribu Experimental Products.

         "It's so easy to administer and the results are so profound I believe Atalon will give us another research grant" Seton had to raise his voice to be heard over the howling and cackling going on around them from the subject cages.
         "It's quite incredible..." Malodon marveled, observing the caged mayhem for a moment. "It's as if they've been possessed!" He knocked on one of the cages, irritating an already irritated pig-looking-like disaster. "Wow… Look at that demonic glare!"

         "Ha-Haaaa! The sound is incredible, isn't it?" Halki found the whining, growling screeching and agonized voices that filled the lab quite amusing. "And we market it as…."

         "Solution" Seton smiled.

         "Solution?" Malodon studied the way the AEP's clawed at their own skin, salivating, hyperventilating and suffocating themselves. "You'll need to come up with an objective if you want to secure a grant."

         "I wonder how they would react to one another if we let them play?" Halki was ready to explore social contact already.

         Malodon shook his head. "Not in here... You can try it outside in one of the coral's."

         As the crew made their way out of the lab, Malodon spotted a lab light still on down the hall and detoured to take look. He peered through the doorway unnoticed. It was his Assistant Adon again... Tonight he was carefully focusing the telescopic lens onto a slide... "Anything new?" Malodon made his way to the work table, ignoring his surprise and picked up the tablet, curious as always over any overtime labor being volunteered by a gen, especially at this level. He examined the data... His face lit up. "A new Gen II Breeder?" Zara’s blood was favorable for the current research. "This is excellent news! Keep me posted, we need lots of Serpents right now."

         "Yes, Your Honor" Adon obliged, confused...

         "Where is she?"

         "Lochia" Adon replied, bewildered...

         "Lochia... Of course… Maybe we should have her shipped over for some tests..." He turned to leave. "Have her sent to the Moha Lab. Right away."

         Excellent news? As Malodon left the lab, Adon was left with some serious questions, what had he missed? Weren't Serpents bad? He studied the tablet again, searching for data that could back up Malodon's peculiar comment, hoping to make sense of it. Yesterday's accident was today's solution?

44. Athenia, Goddess of Finias

        After spending her first night in the medical lab, much of which she could not remember, Zara learned she was just one of hundreds of pregnant Gens at the Meden Institute, she couldn't look away from them, everywhere she turned there were Gens with enormous bellies, she could not believe her eyes! So many other gens were pregnant? Was she really going to look like that? Didn't it hurt?

         Her first appointment was a counselling session, Dena had prepared her for these sorts of things more than those. Visualizing the string as Hedena had so helpfully helped her to envision, she sat poised as best she could in the waiting room chair, clutching the red folder, avoiding eye contact with anyone, feeling completely ashamed to be there, secretly on the verge of tears.
         "Hi there, you must be new?"

         A pretty, bubbly voice sat down beside her, Zara turned to greet a young looking Breeder, holding out her hand, welcoming her.

         "My name is Medra, and you are?" 

         For a moment Zara's tongue was jelly. She fought hard not to look at the biggest belly she had ever seen in her entire life.

         "You're from Fina?"

         "Yes..." Zara smiled nervously. "I... My name is Zara... I just arrived."

         Medra scanned her physique. "Wow... So skinny... Look at you!" She clutched her heart, reminiscing of her good ole days, excited nonetheless to be all that she could be. "How far along are you?" 

        For a moment Zara hasn't heard, mind stuck on whether or not she was joking or not. Medra wasn’t afraid? Fears of the pregnancy troubled her mind, she couldn't hide it. "Um... I think its just over six weeks... And you?"

         "Eight months" she squealed, clearly excited about it. "I'm finally having twins so I’ll get twice as many gold beads this time!"

         "Twice as many gold beads?" Zara had never even thought about the possibility of twins! Medra seemed so brave! "How many examples have you produced already?"

         Medra counted her fingers as the wheels of her memory churned. "Nine, plus these two." she smiled, proudly. "Eleven!"

         "Eleven?" Zara echoed, eyes wide open, jaw falling. "But you look so young!"

         "Thank you!" Medra blushed, flattered by her comment. "I know... I’m only twenty six. I started super young, I’m going to retire by the time I’m, like, twenty seven!"

         The girls were interrupted by an announcement. "Zara?"

         Zara handed the counsellor the red folder and followed her into the office. Like a mature version of Dena, the counsellor was a spark in the dark, dressed in hot pink and donning plenty of sparkling things, the counsellor could brighten up any room she walked into.
         Zara sat down as directed and scanned the room as the counsellor leafed through her red folder, like the exterior of the Meden Institute, the walls inside were just as depressing, there was no color on the wall, even the paintings of Atalon and Medena were faded and old.... No spooky skulls here...

         "Zara, is that how you pronounce it?" The counsellor sounded stern all of a sudden, a lot like Hedena.
         "Yes, Your Honor."

         "You can call me Malena, I am the goddess of Labor. This is your first time, am I correct?"

         "Yes, Malena."
         "Good. When did it happen?"

         "I think it was about six weeks ago." She noticed Malena was making notes in the strange code!

         "Do you know who the donor is?"
         Zara hesitated, feeling embarrassed. "I… I don’t know."
         Malena let out a sigh. "Was he Nefilim or Anunnaki?"

         "Nefilim or Anunnaki…" Zara echoed, confused by the question. "How do you mean?"

         Malena studied her naive expression. "Was he a giant or was he your size?" 

         A Nefilim? Zara was shocked by the blatant suggestion, she wouldn’t dream of having sex with a giant, nor had she met any! Was it a trick question? Was Bell a Nefilim? Heart pounding, she recalled those horrible memories of that morning, she had never really studied him in great detail…. He was large, but not that large... "Regular... I think."

         "Anunnaki Gen" the counsellor concluded, recorded the information. "What was he wearing?"

         Again, Zara only remembered seeing his naked back. "Nothing… I mean... I can’t remember anything about that night."

         "What club did you meet him at?"

         Images of the flashing neon sign returned almost immediately. "I think it was The Green Serpent..."

         "Hair type?"

         "I have no idea… Buzzed... Brownish..."

         Malena wrote down the information and slid the report into the red folder.
         "Very good" she stood up. "You can take this with you" she handed her the red folder. "Give it to the nurse, she is expecting you. Her office is down the hall to your right, follow the red line on the floor."

         Zara noticed the red line on the floor as she left the office, wondering why she hadn't noticed it before. She followed it out into the hall but as it led her through the waiting room she noticed a fresh face waiting in the chair, a beautiful goddess... She recognized her from the university... Then she gasped, realizing who it was. "ATHENIA?"

43. Nine Months, minus however long it's been

        The budget for the bomb project was infinite, there was always more funding when needed. As a result, things were rapidly mushrooming out of control, depending on individual perceptions. Dell was already recruiting teams to manage his foreseen aftermath, Halios was already training troops for his foreseen battle, Halki was investing in more storage space to keep track of developments, even Torus was demanding extra storage facilities, faster than could be provided.

         Stressed, Orius left the heat of Headquarters in need of a cold drink in spite of the pouring rain. For him, the project was demanding answers he couldn't provide because he hadn't even run the tests yet, how could he sign off on his plans without gambling. An Atomic bomb?

         He paused in stride to glance through the steamy windows of the Skin Club, sparsely populated given all the activity and bad weather outside. Feeling the need to warm up and relax, he slipped inside and took a seat at the bar. Moments later his worries were on the release, nerves medicated by alcohol, stress soothed by a Golden Goddess, swinging a serpent around her glittering body on stage.

         "I hear the Crystal Skulls are a raging success!" Halki sat down beside him only moments later.

         "Your Honor" Orius turned to greet him, trying to hide his disappointment. "How successful the Crystal Skulls are still remains to be seen!"

         "You don't sound very optimistic" Halki observed. "I'm not surprised, this whole Coming War business is a sham. You know, if I was any good at divination, if I had Panther Power, I'd use the magic of the Crystal Skulls to sell the idea of a colonization project! Forget Aquilla! Let him rot in the sea! I fancy a new beginning, somewhere nice and warm, out of the rain."

         "Somewhere like Ebar?" Orius wasn't a newbie, he could pick up on a tip when he sensed one, there had been rumors of a colonization project in Ebar. "So it's true?"

         Halki shrugged. "Who knows? My guess is it's true, or we wouldn't have heard the rumor, would we? I'm hopeless at this divination business, I'm trying to think what other angle I could use to sell the idea. I hear Ebar has the most beautiful goddesses in the world!"
         "They're Serpents" Orius reminded.

         "I know" Halki smiled. "I don't hate them like Atalon does, I think he's got them all wrong." He looked Orius in the eye. "You know that."

         "Of course!" Orius felt relieved to learn he wasn't the only one with reservations about the way things appeared to be, he understood where Halki was coming from.

         Relaxed from the wine, Orius returned to his office feeling better, Halki had infused his mind with refreshing thoughts to consider. He knew a way to sell himself to his idea, he would convince Atalon of his divination skills, his Serpent bloodline could be exactly the leverage he needed to land him a colonization gig in Ebar. 

         He chuckled as he considered the synchronicity, that a solution to leave Atlan had fallen into place at the very moment he wished to flee it was no coincidence, it would be such an easy sell he would hardly need to try.

The Crystal Skull element to the equation was so perfect it seemed to be a Divine Intervention, an opportunity for him to seize, exclusively.

         Nor did he have much competition, neither Torus nor Vikkar had comparable talents, he was the quintessential god for colonizing Ebar. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for, it was a chance to re-build the Serpent race, perhaps he could even build them back up enough to compete with the Atlan Empire.

         Zara scanned her new dorm in Lochia, a humble contrast to her beautiful home in Fina. The room was cold, damp and the paint was peeling off the walls. The mattress was old and smelly, there wasn't a closet full of beautiful clothes hung on a rod, this closet was full of old, musty smelling folded plain green robes.

         The only decor was a pair of paintings, this time it was Medena and Atalon, watching over her from the wall above a small table with a bowl of fresh oranges, but there were no roses or invitations to the salon this time. She wandered over to the window to admire the twilight sky, she had a view at least. From her window she could see over the city walls, there was no longer a need to seek out a glimpse, this time she had a balcony view of the farmer's fields… And the Dogon territory beyond; she dared not look too closely.

         Fighting back her fears, she gazed longingly out across the landscape, through the trees she could catch a glimpse of faintly sparkling lights, shimmering in the distance through the trees... 

         "Fina..." Feeling like a prisoner, she let out a labored sigh, reminding herself, "only nine months, minus however long it's been..."