Chapter 18

When Ben awoke he quickly checked on how things were progressing at Aetherkraal. He had tasked a dozen drones to build the satellite — possibly overdoing things a little — in an effort to get it ready as soon as possible.

It was a pleasant surprise to find that the entire thing was finished and ready to lift up into orbit. Ben carried out that task straight away and then returned to the great house to have a look at the images the satellite was already sending.

The miniature communications device was also ready and he mentally lifted that too, bringing it to the cave so that he could fit it into his ear.

As is often the case in life, Ben had woken up with an idea in his head. His subconscious must have been thinking about things while he slept and now he was really keen to find out if his idea had any merit.

He slipped out of bed without waking Sarah and quickly ran through his morning ablutions. Once dressed, he sat down for a moment, held his pouch and closed his eyes so that he could mentally search for Simeone.

Simeone was still sleeping, but Ben had no problem with waking him up. He left his own cave and walked through the network of tunnels until he reached Simeone's. Without a pause, he entered the cave and called out.

"Simeone? Simeone? Wake up lazy bones! Come on, I've got something urgent I need to speak to you about."

The sound of grumbling told him that Simeone had heard and was dragging himself out of bed and minutes later he appeared.

"What time is it?" groaned Simeone.

"Never mind that. Listen, something has occurred to me. You know we all have inherited memories when we're born? I have it in my head that there's a procedure for continually topping up our DNA so that we can pass on each new development to the next generation — is that right?" Ben asked.

Simeone rubbed sleep from his eyes and walked over to the replicator that was recessed into the wall of the cave. He ordered up some fruit juice and took a sip before answering.

"I can't believe you walked in here and woke me up just to ask something as stupid as that. Yes, of course there's a way of adding new knowledge to our DNA. How else would we be able to pass on everything that our civilisation has discovered?" grumbled Simeone.

"How difficult is the surgery?" asked Ben with excitement.

"Surgery? It hasn't required surgery for over forty years. Oh, I get it. Everyone on this planet only has memories that go up to the point you were first created. No one has ever had a top-up here, have they?" Simeone asked.

"Of course not, why do you think I'm asking this question?" replied Ben.

"The procedure is much easier now, all it involves is a simple jab with a suitable applicator and Bob's your Uncle."

"Can you do it? When I woke up this morning I had an idea that there have been developments on Woden since we were born — you know, like the bigger tractor beam thing and tele-porting — and that there was a way of getting access to the information on how it worked. We've developed our own technology of course, but it never hurts to consider how others do things, does it?"

"Well, to do a proper job I'd need to have access to an up to date medico-archive, but I could do the next best thing," offered Simeone.

"You'll have to explain, I don't understand what you mean," said Ben.

"Sorry. A medico-archive is where every new development is added to cultivated DNA so that it can then be used for the population at large. People get a top-up every month so they're always bang up to date. If there's no access to that kind of facility, the next best thing is to do a transplant."

Ben eyed Simeone as if he was talking a different language.

"Transplant?"

"Yeah, all we do is use an applicator on me to take a little of my current DNA and then give it to you. That way you'll have all the memories that I've currently got. It won't bring you completely up to date, but it will bridge the forty-odd year gap that you've got," explained Simeone.

"Let's do it then," urged Ben.

Simeone walked over to the replicator.

"One sterile DNA applicator," he ordered.

The little device appeared and Simeone picked it up. He held out his left arm and pressed the applicator against his shoulder. Ben heard a faint click and then rolled up his sleeve so that Simeone could repeat the process on him.

"You'll need to sleep before it will take effect, but then you should have access to all of the knowledge that's been developed over the past forty years," warned Simeone.

"Fantastic! How easy was that? Thanks Simeone, I'll let you get back to bed," said Ben as he hurried from the cave once more.

When he arrived back at the cave he was sharing with Sarah, Ben replicated another applicator and took a sample of his newly topped-up DNA. He stripped down and climbed into bed beside his sleeping twin and pressed the applicator to her bare shoulder.

"Aaahhhh!" howled Sarah, jerking away from him. "What was that?" she asked grumpily.

"Ssshhh, go back to sleep. I'll explain later," said Ben. He snuggled up to Sarah's back and willed himself back to sleep too.

David was already up and pacing up and down impatiently. He had been frustrated the night before at being outvoted when he had wanted to confront Ben immediately. Now he was working himself up again at the prospect of being able to put Ben on the spot and prove to the others that the man wasn't all he seemed.

"Big-shot! They all think he's the best thing since sliced bread, but I'll show them. I'll show them how much of a fraud he really is. I'll show them that he's only ever bothered about himself and having control over others. I'll show them!"

"David, why are you up so early?" asked a sleepy Beckie.

David spun round to see his mate shuffling from the bedroom.

"I couldn't sleep," he answered, "I can't wait to expose Ben for what he really is."

"Look, I told you last night - you have to calm down about this. Elizabeth is right, there might be some perfectly reasonable explanations for the questions you've got," she said.

"Oh I'm sure he'll try to wriggle out of trouble like he usually does, but this time there are too many questions I think."

"Stop it! Come and join me and eat some breakfast."

David did sit down and Beckie replicated some eggs and toast and set them down in front of him. It was a measure of his mood that he had finished eating within a minute or so, but she took her time eating her own toast, trying to delay the moment when David would confront Ben.

Eventually they were ready to leave the cave, but only after Beckie had taken forever getting washed and dressed while David continued pacing.

"Come on, hurry!" David urged, as they walked into the tunnel network.

"It's still early, David. Elizabeth and Thomas probably aren't even up yet."

Elizabeth was up, but not surprisingly Thomas was still in bed, so David had another wait which only added to his frustration.

The roles were reversed when Simeone entered Ben and Sarah's cave and called out their names. Ben woke and sat up. There was no need to wonder if the procedure had worked, because he was immediately able to read things inside his head that hadn't been there before.

He was puzzled by the images of a young boy with his proud parents until it dawned on him that this was Simeone when he was younger.

"That would make them my grandparents!" he thought with a smile.

Shaking Sarah awake, he jumped out of bed and pulled on his clothes again before joining Simeone in the sitting room portion of the cave.

"It worked, but you should have told me about inheriting your personal memories as well," Ben said.

Simeone's face coloured up.

"Oh! I forgot about that. When babies are born they don't get their parents personal memories — that was considered a breach of individual liberty so there's a block automatically bio-engineered in. The block doesn't work when you do a direct transplant. Some couples do it so they can share everything together — it's quite romantic really," explained Simeone.

"Well, thanks. It's nice to have memories of my grandparents now. There's also the added benefit of knowing how to pilot a space ship — I wasn't expecting that," said Ben.

Sarah joined them after having washed and dressed quickly.

"Ben, what did you do to me? I've got some funny things running around inside my head and I don't know where I'm getting them from," she said.

Simeone looked at Ben.

"You did it to her too?" he asked.

Ben nodded and then thought he'd better explain to Sarah.

"When I woke up this morning I had the idea that we should be able to top-up our memories. You should have been able to find a memory of a medical procedure that was used to do that.

"Simeone told me that things had moved on and that there was a much quicker way of doing it nowadays. He showed me how to transplant some DNA to update my memories, but forgot to warn me that the procedure would also share all of his personal memories with me. I've just found that out.

"When I got back here I carried out the procedure on you too, that was the little jab you felt earlier. Now you've got the memories of everything that Woden has developed in the past forty years and you've also got all of my personal memories too," he said.

Sarah thought for a moment. She was able to conjure up Ben's version of the memory of their first kiss together and it made her blush. Ben saw her cheeks redden and wondered what had caused that to happen.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"I just experienced your memory of our first kiss," she giggled.

Now it was Ben's turn to blush.

Before they could continue with their discovery, Elizabeth, Thomas, David and Beckie walked into the cave. Ben could see how agitated David was and he feared the worst.

"Oh well, let's hope our cover story holds up," he thought to himself.

"Good morning!" Sarah greeted them brightly.

Elizabeth responded in kind and the two women shared a hug.

"What brings you round here so early?" asked Sarah, despite having a very good idea of the nature of the visit.

Given the state he was in, Beckie and Thomas had insisted that David leave the talking to Elizabeth and it was her that answered Sarah's question.

"We wanted to talk about what happened yesterday. There were a few things that had us puzzled and we wondered if you wouldn't mind explaining them?" Elizabeth asked, her question clearly directed at Ben.

"Sure," he said nonchalantly.