Addison fell silent, chest heaving. Four looked furious, but that familiar flickering of expressions was passing over the judge’s face. He was deliberating, deciding, weighing options. Addison held his breath, his entire future hanging in the balance.
Eventually the judge stilled.
“Do not make me regret this.”
– Chapter 5 –
Taka, Again
Deep in the bowels of the institute, in a room so secure even the phantasmagorical jungle ended at its door, Addison watched as a twice-dead man was spun back into existence. The levelling machinery in the room where he’d saved Five was vast, row upon row of looming structures stretching away into the darkness, but in this small space there was only a single car-sized tank. Behind the glass, shadows moved in the liquid, the first stirrings of life, and Addison looked on in awe as the levelling began.
Vat fluid, rich in nutrients, congealed and condensed first into marrow then into bone. Next a bifurcating web of nerves and blood vessels radiated across the growing frame like frost on glass. Delicate tendrils of pink and blue rippled out, spiralling, interweaving, before coalescing into organs and strong, sinewy muscle. Finally, a blanketing membrane of skin bloomed, giving the man recognisable form. Taka was fully-grown in hours, then his memories – pre-extracted from his sample – were delivered via spinal transfer. Imprinted on a synaptic lace designed to dissolve into his brain, their successful implantation was heralded by a series of chimes and readouts that flickered green.
Standing before the vat, Two and Five hummed in satisfaction. As he watched these master craftsmen at work Addison couldn’t help but marvel. It was all so easy. Technology had made a mockery of the rudimentary nature of the human body, assembling an entire person from component parts like he was nothing more than flat-pack furniture. It was humbling, horrifying, and he couldn’t understand how humanity had mastered something as utterly godlike as levelling yet been unable to save itself. Or perhaps that was humanity in a nutshell: brilliance and brutality two sides of the same coin.
“Levelling complete,” Five announced as the hulking machinery in the next room stilled.
“No dysphasia,” Two added, glancing at his tablet. “Zero dyspraxic indicators, negligible genetic creep.”
“Flawless work.”
“As ever.”
Five turned to Addison with a smile.
“Now Mr. Moore, it’s over to you.”
In the levelling room Addison had felt exhilarated, burning with inner purpose, but when Taka was moved to the vision chair he grew nervous. He was second-guessing himself, going round in circles trying to remember what he’d said last time.
Repeating himself was critical as even the tiniest deviation could produce a different result. Addison wanted to precisely echo the first levelling – same words, same gestures, same everything – so Taka would react as he had previously. The thought that he would do or say something to hurt Taka (or god forbid, make Taka hurt him) was unbearable.
But he needn’t have worried.
“Are you okay… ?”
The vision chair had stopped thrumming and the newly-resurrected man was gazing up at Addison from the floor. It was the same expression as last time, down to a smile line: concern, care and humour all in one look. But faced with that smile, Addison’s mind went blank. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember what he’d said the first time around, what came next in the script. Panicking, he clammed up.
“Hey, Major Tom… ?”
Think think think...
“Ground Control here,” Taka said, waving up at him. “Is there anybody up there?”
For a nauseating moment Addison thought he’d ruined it. He was way off-script, into uncharted territory, but then he saw the glint in Taka’s eye, the same spark that had so beguiled him the first time. Everything was going to be okay.
Addison was so relieved he laughed out loud.
“End of the world and I’m greeted by laughing boy,” Taka deadpanned. “Of all the luck.”
He pulled himself upright, then glanced down at his body.
“Oh shit, my tattoos!”
Addison’s laughter grew even louder.
* * *
In hindsight, it was never going to be easy.
“You want me to do fucking what?”
Taka was furious, incandescent, storming up and down the narrow space of his cellsuite like a man possessed. Addison had just told him what his role was to be at the institute. He was not happy about it.
“So let me get this right,” Taka shouted. “You want me to help you resurrect long-dead people, help a bunch of trumped-up ecofascists from the year two thousand and fuck, put them on trial, then help them do it all over again?”
“Basically...”
“No! I won’t! I won’t do it.”
“We have to, Taka,” Addison pleaded. “They’re going to execute them all the same, so at least we can make their time comfortable. And besides, if we don’t the levellers will use the drone on us. It hurts Taka, it really hurts.”
“I don’t care!” Taka roared, eyes flashing. “I will not be a fucking handmaiden of death.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I can’t believe you! Those people are dying, and you want me, what, to get out of the way and and let it happen?”
“I’ve been here longer than you,” Addison replied, trying not to sound desperate. “If there were another way, I’d know. It’s this or we die.”
“Then maybe we should die.”
“We can’t.”
“We really could.”
“No listen, we can’t,” Addison insisted. “I tried. Nearly threw myself off a balcony, but this thing in my neck stopped me. Even if we could, they’d just re-level us. They have our blood, so all they’d need to do is take another sample and hey presto, once more round the wheel.”
Taka had stopped pacing.
“Really?” he asked, staring at him with a mix of rage and concern. “You nearly did... that?”
“It’s okay,” Addison mumbled, staring at his feet. “I don’t know why I even told you.”
He did know. It was because he wanted to tell Taka everything.
“So you're saying we
