Chapter 24: Transformation

My friends and I all rested at Arlington for the next few days; the battle had been fairly easy but it was stressful. We were still waiting for a reply from Commander Fezip about the information that was sent to him. The people who were rescued in Washington all wanted to go with us at first, until they learned they would hold no power in the new city. A few still wanted to go, a few were friends of Paul and involved in the actions against New Nation, they were welcomed. We set up those who wanted to stay in Washington in one of the large hotels and installed one of our power generators. Then they cleared the housing from a section of the city and turned it into farmland. We also left a drone to help and teach them what they needed to know. This would also allow us to keep an eye on them; they thought the drone was just a volunteer from the group.

The girls, despite the heat still wanted to drive back home, but I decided we needed to get home quicker. I had still been experiencing problems occasionally, fresh in my mind was hearing Maxine (the FBI agent) scream back in Kingman, even though she was miles away. I was still experiencing headaches but they were happening less often. I couldn't help but feel that something was very wrong. I had also not informed them of what I knew of the Bethans.

We used one of the flyers and headed back home, as we were flying Patricia spoke up, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I just feel funny. Ever since Kingman I have felt kind of strange, it started when I heard Maxine yelling for help," I said looking at Maxine.

"You mean when we were being held prisoner?" Maxine asked.

"Yes, the strange thing was I heard you from miles away. No I can't explain it; I was the only one that heard you."

"As soon as we get back make sure you have Kristy check you out!" Jenny said.

"I plan on it."

After landing at the CAP tower, the girls and I went directly to the medical facility. When we arrived, Kristy was there to meet us.

"How are you feeling?" Kristy asked looking at me.

I was not sure how to explain the feelings I was having. The way my body was responding was similar to the way it felt when I controlled one of the drones. I responded by saying, "I'm not sure, I just feel strange, it almost feels like I'm a drone and remotely controlling my own body. I know that sounds strange but that's how it feels."

"Well the medical scans all come back fine; you should be in perfect health." Kristy said.

"What about my implant, can you check that?"

Kristy looked off into space for a few minutes then replied, "That's curious, the memory in your implant appears to be almost full. Give me a few minutes to check this out."

I was sitting on the medical table relaxing. Kristy was still running a diagnostic on my implant when the lights went out.

"Justin!" Patricia yelled.

Sometime later I woke up, "What happened?"

"You passed out; you have been out for over a week. There was a massive amount of coding that was added to your implant. I believe the information was sent to you and the implant absorbed the data instead of your brain. It acted as a sort of firewall somehow; it kept the information from downloading directly." Kristy responded.

Kristy's scans still showed that everything was normal with my body. She went back to scanning the implant but it was no longer there.

"The implant is gone!"

"How is everyone else?"

"Several people are in a coma, every one of them had and implant and had used the learning tables."

"Yes, I know now. It was the Bethans. They caused this to happen."

"Please explain."

So I explained. The two sole survivors of the Bethan race completed their plan for revenge on the Evil Ones. The Evil Ones use some type of gate technology to cross dimensions. This however corrupts DNA causing living beings to die off; this is why they harvest fresh DNA. They use the DNA for clones and then through some unknown process they transfer their consciousness to the clone bodies. After cloning enough people, they set off to conquer other races only returning for fresh DNA when needed. Because of the DNA corruption, this process has to happen in every dimension except for their original. In order for the Bethans to get revenge on the Evil Ones, they began a process of replacing all human DNA with artificial Nanos. This process was partially interrupted by the implants some of us carried. The Nano process was still completed but the information download was halted. However, the Nanos have now absorbed the implant and made the data available to me. The have also incorporated the technology into my system.

"You're saying that the Bethans turned you into a machine so you could use the gate technology to track down and kill the Evil Ones on their home ground?"

"That would be an easy explanation yes."

"I'm sorry, I should have checked out the technology more thoroughly before I let anyone use it."

"It's not your fault. However, this does change things drastically. The Bethan programming didn't take hold thanks to my implant but the memory of what the Evil Ones have done is still there. I will not rest until they are all destroyed."

I stayed in the medical bay for the next 5 days waiting for everyone else to wake up. I found that I no longer had to eat or drink. My body required power to survive and if I didn't consume anything my body would just tap energy from the ship when needed. I found I still had communications with the drones and Kristy as if the implant was still functioning. I also worked on the devices recovered from Duke the clone.

"Hi," I said to Patricia as she woke up.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Those tricky Bethans really laid one on us, I guess we found the reason they were so generous."

"I don't understand."

I held her hand and passed the knowledge on to her of what I had learned. I left out the re-programming code but gave her the memories I had of the Evil Ones.

"I can't believe they did that to us, but you're right, the Evil Ones need to die."

I leaned over and kissed my wife then slowly leaned back saying, "Well at least some things still work."

Patricia smiled and said, "What are we going to do now?"

"I hate to say it but we need to leave. If the Evil Ones ever find out we're here they will stop at nothing to destroy everything here. Those of us that have been affected need to find a new home away from the others; we need a base of operations to plan our revenge. We must also keep all this information to ourselves, we will need to make an excuse and just leave. The less that know the truth the safer everyone will be."