Chapter 8: Getting closer

“Hi Helax, how are you?”

“I am well. I am starting to get more customers, and that is good. I thought we would be swamped from the start, but the ramp up was slow and prolonged. If you choose to go, today is the last visit to the ship. If you wait, you will continue weekly rehabilitation on the ship and three times a week here for a year.”

“If I decide to go, where do I get rehabilitation?”

“The University is superbly equipped to deal with you. The professors will probably reevaluate you every few months. Today they want to talk to you and review your progress,” said Helax. “Meet Helarna; she is helping me and covers for me when I am out.”

They briefly chatted, and then Helarna went on her way.

“What is that big building in the vacant plot?” Horti asked.

“It is a school to teach Earth people how to adapt to Vendaska. Some people will wait up to six months. My bosses have seen how much progress you guys made in a month and want to do the same on a bigger scale and for longer. They think it will help many to be able to decide to leave their comfortable lives. I have been reading the reports of a famous Collective Anthropologist who is watching the progress of the changes. He says the pace of change here is faster than any other place has ever seen and says every civilization is in denial during the first phases. Shock dominates the next phase. He writes beautifully and provides many interesting examples of past work in other civilizations. I will send it to you if you like?”

Horti nodded. “The Emperor has put a lot of effort into the reconstruction effort! Yes, Helax, I would be interested in the paper you mentioned.”

“It will find you on your slate at the university.”

Horti nodded.

Helax smiled. “Let’s go.”

After a martial arts session and her time in the pod, Horti met with the professors in the small meeting room on the ship. Helax accompanied her. Piaa spoke first.

“Horti, your rehabilitation is going well. You are making excellent progress in your studies. All your family and friends, by any standards, are exceptional beings. You will be behind physically but will soon catch up. Today we accelerated your physical changes. You have grown two centimeters but will grow another thirteen in three months, and your face and body type will change completely. We blocked the lower ear change for the family and your friends. We agree with your reasons for avoiding that change. It will make you too different and excite too much attention.”

“What are the disadvantages of the impending changes?” Horti asked.

Marthad projected a picture of Horti in her final form with her present form next. “If you look at your present and future forms, your center of gravity is higher. You will be clumsy like a growing adolescent. Your new muscles are much stronger. I don’t know how much stronger as we don’t have any experience with such different muscles. We built muscles like yours and discovered your body works differently from any beings we have encountered. Your muscles are much stronger, but we don’t know if that will transfer to real-life experience.”

“Your bones will be denser. Your color will become more bronzed, not as much as the warriors, but you will look like you have experienced considerable sun exposure,” said Piaa.

“Your leg is functioning at eighty percent of its capacity, but that is of your current strength and agility. The last twenty percent takes a lot of work and exercise. You are in the bottom one percent of physical function compared to your Dinnion peers. You moved up from one ten-thousandth-of-a-percent. That is a hundredfold improvement in a month.”

“Is that what you expected?”

“No, we expected you would improve more slowly. You did well,” said Marthad.

“How are my grandparents?”

“Your grandparents deteriorated after a lifetime of inactivity. Your parents have also never exercised but made a big effort this month and improved nearly as much as you did,” said Piaa. “I am amazed your grandparents survived.”

“We placed your grandparents in a remedial program after further extensive medical work. We cleared muck out of their brains and regrew brain tissue. They looked fine but were operating on experience and considerably reduced brain capacity,” said Marthad. “They asked us to tell you about them as they were shocked to find out how close they were to the end of their lives. They will take six months to a year to recover full brain function and return to operating physically and intellectually as they should.”

“We can now build your tissue using your ancient DNA. We built your leg using the newer DNA, but your ancient DNA is aggressively taking over,” said Piaa. “We would like to see you at the hospital in the city every three months. The university hospital is a department of our hospital and will handle your rehabilitation.”

Marthad turned to Piaa and nodded.

“Horti, now I must tell you some bad news. The Naturalista launched several searches looking at recruits. Our intelligence people contacted us and warned us,” said Piaa. “They can’t get into your files despite five attempts. We marked five hundred files to try and hide yours amongst them, but finally, we recreated your files and made you look like ordinary recruits. Something or someone we can’t identify tipped them off to pay more attention to you. The hospital holds your genuine medical files, but they are under the tightest security. I asked our people to ensure we can protect you.”

“Can you tell me some more about these Naturalista?” Horti asked. “I guess I need to know about them as they directly threaten us.”

“They are an elitist terrorist organization that is the oldest such organization in the Dinnion Regency. They infiltrated deeply into Dinnion society. They are in the police, the intelligence services, and every strategic area. They want to gain power and prevent us from moderating our personalities. We can see rampant personality disorder in Earth society and shudder to imagine what could happen to the Dinnion if the Naturalista takes over. We suspect they have a deeper plan but do not know what it might be.”

“Does the unification with the Uzliumbax Empire effect them?”

“Who knows what they will do now they are part of a bigger Empire? They are more likely to expand than contract or give up. No doubt they will try and recruit others and spread havoc elsewhere if they can.”

“Professors, have you found out any more about our DNA?”

Both nodded vigorously.

Piaa indicated to Marthad. “We have progressed quickly. We understand how your body works but do not yet know the role of your systems in other dimensions. It may not sound like much, but we can treat you if you are hurt, sick, or injured in your new body. We will update all pods in the Empire so any pod can treat you.”

“That is good to know. I will warn my parents and friends about the Naturalista threat and update them on what you tell me.”

Marthad grimaced. “We are struggling to understand how your transdim brain works. We are having difficulty as none of you know how to use that section of your brain. We don’t know how to tell if you ever access it.”

“Why was I the only stunted member of my family?” Horti asked.

“Something toxic affected you when you were young, so you are smaller than your parents and weaker before we enhanced you. You will become powerful. We don’t know why it only affected you or how someone gave it to you,” said Marthad. “I doubt it was an incidental exposure to something in the environment. It is unlike anything on your planet.”

“What do you know about my brain, and how is it different?” Horti asked.

“The biggest difference is you have knowledge embedded in you. We don’t know what it is, but neither do you. You haven’t triggered your knowledge. We don’t know what the triggering mechanism is. We don’t know if it must be triggered from outside or if you trigger it. Your brain looks like the brain of any other on Earth, but it activates differently. You have more brain cells than others on your planet and all of us other than the Azloc Queens. You have a bigger brain for your size than the Gromelix, and that excludes your extended unused brain.”