G Michael Smith

fiction

Photo by Bioscience Image Library by Fayette Reynolds

Muscle and Bone

Written by G Michael Smith

A small hand reached out and moved the frond aside. A rivulet of water ran down the stem and washed over the bruised knuckles. The hand darted back, startled by a splash from an over burdened leaf. In the distance, a howl echoed through the jungle. The young boy’s hand reached out again and pulled the large leaf aside. He stepped out of the underbrush. He moved forward, carefully placing his feet on the soft earth. He froze at the sound of snapping branches. He looked up and around. His breathing slowed. He held his breath in an effort to vanish into the silence. The jungle followed suit. Even the insects, ever omnipresent, stopped. The silence was unbearable until it was vanquished by a roar and a terrifying scream. The boy wanted to conceal himself in the undergrowth, but moving would signal he was alive and available. He slowly crouched down. He wanted to be small. He wanted to sink into the wet mud and disappear.

His hand felt a sharp stone at his feet. Instinctively his fingers curled around the stone. He lifted it up. He shifted the sharp point in his hand and gripped it tightly. It was now a weapon. He tested the sharpness in his palm. He started to breathe deeply with the knowledge that he could strike back. He would not be just meat. He would be blood, muscle and bone. He stood and held the new weapon out to the darkness, as if he could dominate the entire jungle.

He knew they would come for him. If he was older, he could have called his passenger to protect him but he was not of age. He had told them he was ready. He had lied. He had left the safety of the fort to show the clan he could survive, but now he feared there were just too many of them. His passenger was not strong enough to control his body, but it might be able to jump. A passenger might jump to a new host if it were strong enough. He knew he would die either way so it didn’t matter.

Growls and squeals, and howls of pleasure and pain orbited around him. He could not see them but the smell of their hunger filled the wet air. He twisted and turned to face each source as they swelled and closed in on him. He shifted his arm and pointed the sharp rock at each new sound until there were so many he shivered into a frozen statue. The rock fell from his hand and his body became a blur of mangled flesh and shattered bones.

* * * * *

It was cold. Not just shiver cold but frozen cold. The wind was a constant ice-breathing banshee. He pulled his parka hood tight and leaned into the storm. He could see a dim glow that grew brighter as the snow flakes grabbed and tossed light into the gloom. It was the light stands in front of the entrance to the cave. It was much further than they told him when he left the station office. Two klicks they said. It started out simple enough. He could see the light towers clearly, but then the wind came up like some evil magician had waved his wand. It brought the ice banshee with it like a partner in crime. He trudged forward until the cave seemed to reach out and welcome him. He felt the buzz of the force field as he passed through. The cessation of sound and cold and snow hit him like the sudden release of pressure. He pulled the parka hood back and wiped the frost from his whiskers. He breathed slowly. A smile broke out on his face. He was here. Antarctica. The ancient geology beneath his feet was now open for him to explore. He removed his parka and stepped through the metal door that led to the dig. The metal stairs spiraled down to an elevator bank. It descended to the remains of an old jungle that existed before the continent had drifted south, pushed by some unknown cataclysm, and was filled with eons of snow.

The cave was man-made and sealed from the elements above. A small nuclear power plant provided heat and light. It also powered the pumps that carried the kilometers of forced snow melt to the surface. Walls were constructed as the snow was removed. It had taken almost a year to finally expose the valley floor. It was then that the digging began. There was layer after layer of the flora and fauna that once grew and roamed this jungle. Only the lowest level was in a state of total decay. The top layers were preserved, almost as if time had stopped. The top layer of ice was kept in place and replaced after the ground layer was studied. The entire dig was flooded with carbon dioxide to slow potential decay. All the scientists had to wear hazmat suits when on the surface of the dig.

He suited up and walked over the frozen surface until he reached his allocated ten-meter square section that had been cleared of ice. He scanned the ground, trying to decide the best place to begin. The top layer was just a black mess of semi-rotted debris. The ground was level except for a small bump thirty centimetres in diameter. He was drawn to it. Placing his feet carefully to remain on the strategically placed stepping stones, he knelt down and used his spade to expose the object under the bump. It was about the size of a small melon. He dug under it and lifted it up. It was covered in mud and debris. He took a small canister of CO2 from his belt and sprayed the object. As he cleaned it, it changed color. It was coppery gold. Once it was clean, he lifted it up and inspected it.

He sucked in his breath. It was a large piece of amber. He took out a flashlight and shone it into the amber. He sucked in his breath again. “Holy shit,” he whispered. Preserved in the amber was a small lower jaw bone of some sort of humanoid that looked like it had fallen into the tree resin yesterday. He could clearly see bits of preserved flesh clinging to the bone.

He opened a cooler pouch on his hip and reverently placed the artifact inside. He quickly walked off site to the storage wall, opened a freezer compartment, and put the amber artifact inside. He glanced back and thought of other possible secrets this dig might be hiding. He trudged back to the section of the dig assigned to him knelt down to carefully excavate another small area before it could frost over again.

* * * * *

She slammed the car door and rushed to the glass entryway. She was in a hurry. She held up the ID card that hung from the lanyard around her neck. The doors swung open automatically. The security woman nodded at her.

“You’re early today, Ms. Kent.”

“Yeah. I want to get to a specimen that arrived yesterday. “

“You afraid the guy crew will get to it first?”

“How’d you guess? They would just mess it up.”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“A piece of amber with something very cool inside it.”

“Well, good luck. I hope you get to study it.”

Mary Kent walked to the elevators and descended three levels to the basement cold storage lab. She checked in with her ID and entered the room. She sat at one of the free computer stations and logged in. She entered ‘amber’ and ‘Antarctica’ into the search engine. Thirty images popped up. She ordered them by date. What she wanted popped to the top of the list. She selected it and started to read.

The data covered where and when it was found along with the storage procedures that were followed. The specs detailed it’s size, shape, and color. The last bit of information was the retrieval code she would need to enter into the specimen bank. She whispered the code over and over as she walked to the keypad. She entered it and waited. The machine did not make a sound.

A small screen gave her feedback. It said, ‘The requested item cannot be removed from the freezer. Please enter your ID if you wish to examine the specimen insitu.’ She entered her ID. A door slid open. She entered and put on a protective suit. The specimen was in front of her. She slipped her arms into the inspection box and manipulated the mechanical hands. She picked up the amber ball. She turned it over and inspected it from all sides. She felt her heart rate jump.

Inside was a small jawbone. It was not simian. It was humanoid and probably a child. She rotated the amber ball, looking for a sign that this jaw belonged to one of the early species. Neanderthal, Homo Erectus, or maybe Denisovan. The tooth pattern did not fit any of them. She had already eliminated Cro Magnon. This was different from all of them. The phrase, an unknown species, jumped into her head and her heart rate accelerated. She manipulated the camera to zoom in on various sections of the amber. She saved her videos to be analyzed by the AI at her desk.

She returned to her desk and asked the AI to analyze the data. A few minutes later her suspicions were confirmed. It was not like anything anybody had ever seen. She read the last paragraph of the report. “It appears as if the tree sap that originally encased the jaw bone and was transformed to amber completely sealed the specimen from the outside air. That, combined with the frigid environment, set the likelihood of viable DNA at 40%”

“Forty fucking percent. Holy shit buckets,” Mary exclaimed out loud. She quicky looked around to see if anyone had arrived while she had been in the freezer room. No one had. Then, something occurred to her and she opened the assignment log and registered herself as the lead investigator on the specimen ATA7213 – Amber Ball. Now no one could inspect it without her permission and that was a permission she would never give.

She sat back and smiled.

She whispered, “Forty fucking percent viable DNA. I could grow a whole new creature.” She looked around the room. “Don’t be stupid. They would never let you.” Her thoughts continued. I could extract some of the DNA and enucleate at least a dozen cells. If they grew into embryonic blastocysts, I might be able to create a brand-new creature. If it turns out the DNA is viable, they’ll take it away from me. I’m sure of that. Maybe I will check for viability and if it’s true, I could secret away some of the material. Maybe I might …. “Don’t be stupid.”

The door to the lab opened and three men entered. They all saluted Mary as if she were the chief. She was not. It was their way of telling her she was insignificant. She lifted her middle finger and saluted them back. They all laughed and sat at their desks. The morning slipped by until Greg shouted out. “Hey, Mary, I see you got the new amber specimen. I want to work on that. Any chance you’ll let me look at it?” She ignored him. “Mary?”

Mary turned slowly around and looked at him. She said, “I’m not ready to do anything with it at this time.” The expression on her face read, “Not in a million eons. Asshole.”

“Ok. Let me know when you want my considerable expertise.” He grinned. “Just so you know; I have already sent out a press release on the discovery of an amber ball from the Antarctic dig that might contain DNA. So, when you start, remember, it was me who laid the ground work.

* * * * *

Jagmeet skipped through online articles that covered the latest in cloning. He started to read about the frozen ball of amber that had been discovered in Antarctica, that might contain viable DNA. He had begged, borrowed, and stolen, mostly stolen, all the equipment he would need to create something awesome. The world would sit up and take notice. Ancient DNA would be an amazing beginning. It would make him famous. He scrolled to the end of the article and found the geneticist who was researching the piece. He recognized the name.

“Shit, it’s Kent. I was one of her best students. Ha. What a joke. She couldn’t stand me.” He paused and flipped back in the article. “She’s still working in the Uni Lab. I think a visit is in order. “

* * * * *

Mary was sitting in her office flipping through applications for a new lab assistant. What she really wanted was someone to take her classes. She only had funding for a lab assistant. If she played her cards right, she might get both. This current stack of resumes was not very interesting. No one really served her needs. She dropped the pile on her desk, and at the same moment, someone knocked on her office door.

Thinking it was one of her students she called out, “Come back tomorrow. Office hours are over.”

“Ms. Kent. It’s me Jagmeet. I’m not a student any more and I would like to discuss something important with you. Do you have a moment?”

Mary got up and opened the door. She expected the person she remembered to be quite short, but instead, she had to look up at a very tall man. “Jagmeet, how did you get so tall?”

“Nice to see you Ms. Kent. I grew taller and I also grew up. Hope you don’t hold my behaviour in your class against me. I am not like that any more.” Jagmeet grinned a large toothy grin. He thought, I have different vices now.

“What can I do for you?” she asked and smiled at him. “Your behavior in my class is forgotten. It’s in the past.”

“May I come in? I wish to chat in private,” he said, glancing at a group of students walking by.

“Come in.” She gestured to a chair. “Have a seat.”

Jagmeet sat in the proffered chair. “Thanks Ms. Kent.”

“Call me Mary.”

“Well, Mary, I got my doctorate last year and …”

“Congratulations.” She sat behind her desk and looked at her watch. “Well, Jagmeet, cut to the chase.”

“Yes. I’m not sure how to start. Sorry. Well, I have acquired some equipment that I would love to put to good use. I remember one of your lectures on the ethics of cloning. You were not too committed to the whole university credo.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“That all cloning is bad.”

She shrugged. “It’s the world we live in.”

“As I said, I have everything needed to do whatever we decide. Maybe something fantastic. The laws are so vague that I would say it’s completely legal. We wouldn’t cloning a human, I don’t think.”

“Just what are you proposing we clone?”

“I was hoping you could provide some of the DNA from that amber ball you’ve got frozen away. I have everything else. I have a microinjection system, electroporation equipment, gene guns, incubators, centrifuges, spectrophotometers, high end microscopes, and automated liquid handling systems. I have all the tools for a CRISPR-Cas9 system.” He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

“You’re talking millions. Are you super rich or something?”

“Or something,” he replied enigmatically.

“Where would this little experiment happen?”

“I have a little warehouse. It’s not pretty from the outside but looks can be deceiving.” He stared at her expectantly. “So, are you in?”

Mary stood up and walked up to Jagmeet. She stared down at him with her hands on her hips. “If you’re fucking with me….” She left message hanging.

Jagmeet lifted both hands in a reassuring gesture. “Ms. Kent, I am a grown-up scientist. I like you and I would never.”

Mary suppressed an eye roll. “I need to think about it.”

Jagmeet stood. “Soon I hope.” He dropped his card on her desk and left the office.

Mary mulled the concept over in her mind. She was more than a little intrigued. This proposition from her former student was the kind of thing a scientist like her could only dream about.

* * * * *

Mary wandered past the artificial wombs that held the growing zygotes and embryos. Jagmeet had contacted a Japanese company that had developed the ectogenetic wombs, fully teched out with sensors and cameras. She did not know what, or who he had promised to get them, and she didn’t care. He had obtained twenty of them.

They had prepared a dozen, anticipating a failure rate of up to 90%. That did not happen. Instead, the reverse happened. Only two out of the twelve had failed. They discussed destroying some of the zygotes. If allowed to develop much further, they would become a strain on resources. Destroying them later would be much more difficult. She grimaced. The ‘M’ word circled her consciousness. She pushed the unformed thought aside and inspected the clusters of cells of the nearest embryo being transmitted to the screen in front of the room filled with artificial wombs. She twisted a knob and the screen zoomed in on the subject. She could count the cells. It looked like there were eight in total. The focus blurred and when it returned there were sixteen cells. She heard Jagmeet behind her.

“How are they doing?” he asked.

Mary glanced at him and turned back to the screen. “Holy fuck.”

“What?” asked Jagmeet. He approached the screen and looked. The number of cells was now sixty-four.

“The growth is too rapid. I don’t know what we have here but it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. Only some cancers might divide like this …” She thinks for a moment. “… and deer horns. Yeah, deer horn cells grow right before your eyes like that.”

“Is this the only one?” asked Jagmeet. He turned a knob beside the screen and a different artificial womb appeared.

They both stared at the cluster of cells. Nothing happened. He flipped the knob again and another cluster appeared. Again, nothing happened. On the third screen, a large cluster of cells was beginning to differentiate. “At this rate, by morning we’ll have a baby of whatever that is.”

“We are growing two different creatures here. I think that the slow growing ones belong to whatever or whomever that jaw bone belonged to. I noticed that the jaw bone was seriously damaged before it fell into the amber. Perhaps these fast-growing ones belong to a different creature.”

“We’ll have to kill it if it gets any bigger”, said Jagmeet.

“No. I will sit here and watch. There might be more. I have to see what we have wrought.”

“Look here.” Jagmeet pointed at a switch on the control panel. “This switch will send a thousand volts through the artificial womb you are viewing and kill whatever is inside. If it grows too big for your liking just flip the switch. I’m going home. See you tomorrow. “

“I ‘m staying to watch them all.”

“There are ten artificial wombs. At the rate they are growing you had better be quick, especially if they start to rip the wombs apart in an effort to get out.” He chuckled and left.

Mary looked at all the zygotes. She found four that were rapidly growing. She flipped back and forth and watched.

She reflected on what it might be, growing in front of her. How did this jawbone get this strange DNA on it? She chastised herself for not following proper procedure. She should have sequenced every sample to ensure it was all from the same creature, but they had been in a hurry and just assumed it was. It obviously wasn’t. But how had it gotten there? Then it hit her. Something had attacked the owner of the jawbone and left its DNA behind. If it could eat a small humanoid, and snap the jawbone from its skull so that it flew off and landed in the pool of pitch, it must have been large. Very large. She looked back at the screen. The cluster of cells had started to take the form of the creature she had just imagined. Mary was enthralled. She decided that this opportunity to study a long extinct animal was just too good to pass up, ethics be damned. She would let each of them grow to a point. She could always start again if she wanted to see a full-grown animal. She would kill them at a different stage of development and study them.

She sat back and watched. The creatures were developing before her eyes. Her initial impression of them as large beasts began to shift. The embryos, that were rapidly becoming fetuses, did not look like they would grow any larger than a small dog. She blinked as one of the creatures moved. Its mouth opened and that was when she noticed the teeth rapidly growing. The head grew to match the needle-like teeth bowing out from the jaw. It made her think of pictures she had seen of Angler Fish. This was not a fish. It was mammalian. She turned the viewing knob and the image shifted from embryo to embryo. The cycle of the four creatures was like watching an old flip book. By the time she returned to the first creature, it had already changed. She realized that she could not leave these embryos unattended over night. They would soon be at the fetus stage.

She took a quick x-ray image of one of the creatures. She could see the bones of its back legs. The whole made her think of a miniature kangaroo body with a huge, teeth-filled head. She did not want to meet it or its brothers out in the world. The thought of killing them was much more palatable as she imagined encountering a herd of them in some ancient jungle. She got the feeling they hunted in packs, like schools of piranhas. She wanted them to get to a fully developed stage before she did them in, so she watched. She wondered.

She decided to call Jagmeet. He answered with a yawn. “Yeah?”

“I think you should get back here and see these creatures. We need to make a decision. There might be other options. We have to decide what to do besides kill them.”

“Come now?”

“Yes. Hurry. Their growth is accelerating.”

“Be there in ten.”

She sat back in her chair and mulled over the possibilities. These were new unknown creatures. The Uni she worked for would shit if they found out what she and Jagmeet had done. But if they never found out …. well, there was a lot of money to be made. This wasn’t a Dr. Moreau kind of creation. This was real. God, this creature was at least fifty million years old and it was growing right in front of her. Given where the DNA was found, she assumed this beast had attacked and killed the entity that was growing in the other vats. She and Jagmeet would have to discuss their futures later. Right now, these beasts were demanding her attention. She stood as Jagmeet entered.

“Ok. What’s happening that’s more important than my beauty sleep.”

Mary pointed at the screen. “Look.”

Jagmeet slid into the chair and stared at the screen. “Holy shit. Are they all like that?” Mary nodded her head. He flipped from image to image. He spun around in the chair and smiled.

“We need to kill these monsters now before we have them running around the warehouse trying to eat me,” said Mary. Jagmeet stood and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” she demanded.

He turned. “I don’t agree. I am going to get some cages. And some meat to feed them.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” she called out.

“I could sell one of these for a huge wad. If we got a breeding pair…” he paused and looked skyward as if was calculating “...well we could name our price.”

“Or spend time decorating our jail cells,” Mary replied, shaking her head as he walked to the door.

“Be back soon.”

She turned to the screen and flipped through images of the four rapidly growing beasts. Her eyes focused on the kill switch. She caressed it with her finger. She was feeling very uneasy. She made a decision. “Sorry, Jagmeet, but you are not taking me down with you.” She flipped the switch. The monster in the view screen jerked for a few seconds and then went still.

* * * * *

“I want you to know that I have not forgiven you for zapping my monsters.” Jagmeet said as he turned in the chair.

“You mean our monsters.”

He turned back and stared at the screen. “These embryos are near to full term. They don’t look like monsters. In fact, they look just like small humans. According to this data they will weigh about one kilo when they are, dare I say it. Born. That suggests they will be very small humanoids.”

“The question rears its ugly head once again. What are we going to do with them?”

Jagmeet shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the screen. “Hey, look at this?” He pointed at one of the embryos. “What is that?”

“What?”

“That.” He pointed at the neck of an embryo. “All the embryos have a tubular bulge a centimetre in diameter that extends from the base of the skull down their back.

Mary looked closely at the screen. “No idea. X-ray it.”

Jagmeet fiddled with some switches and an image of one of the embryos popped up on the screen. A cylinder appeared bright white at the base of the skull, extending down ten centimetres. “What is that?” he asked incredulously.

“What ever it is, it’s not flesh and blood. The only things that show up white on x-rays are made of metal.”

“That makes no sense. How could something metal be growing inside that little guy?

Mary reached over his shoulder and flipped through the embryos. “God! They all have one.”

Jagmeet and Mary stared at each other. They instinctively knew they were both thinking the same thing. Finally, Jagmeet spoke, “Which one?”

“That is not the question. When, is the question. Do we wait until they are full term? I think so. If that thing is growing inside them then we want it fully developed.”

“We have six of them. I think we have to dissect one now. I need to know how a flesh and blood body could develop metal parts. Are they fricking cyborgs?” He stared at Mary. “I repeat – which one?”

Mary reached out and spun the knob that switched between fetal images. The screen flashed through them all and finally stopped. “That one. Number two.”

“I’ll set up the OR. Tomorrow at ten o’clock.”

Mary nodded.

* * * * *

The artificial womb containing the chosen fetus was sitting on a metal table. Both Mary and Jagmeet were wearing masks and latex gloves. “How do you want to do this?” Jagmeet asked.

“Drain the fluid, inject the gas, wait two minutes, remove the fetus, and cut out whatever that cylinder is.”

A few minutes later the humanoid creature was laying on its back on the operating table. Jagmeet held up the scalpel. “You want to do the honors?” Mary took the blade from his hand and poised it over the body on the table. She made a cut. The metallic cylinder became exposed. Jagmeet reached in and squirted saline over the incision, washing the blood away.

Mary leaned in. “There does not seem to be any connection between the cylinder and the body. I have no idea how this came into being or what it does. It’s just sitting there.” She reached in and lifted the cylinder out. Jagmeet sprayed it with saline. It shone in the bright light. Mary stared at it. Her eyes began to dim and the cylinder took on a dull sheen. It slowly faded from sight. Her hand was now empty. She dropped her arms to her sides. Her right hand still held the scalpel.

“What the fuck?” yelled Jagmeet. Mary turned, as if in a trance. She looked at Jagmeet. He stared back. “Mary, are you ok?” He reached out and touched her shoulder. Her skin was almost hot. His hand slid toward the heat. “Mary, you are burning up.” He reached the source of the heat. He ran his hand down the back of her neck. “Mary, what is that in your neck?”

He never got an answer. Mary raised her arm and sliced through his carotid artery. He fell to the ground, clutching his neck. It was gushing blood. She stared at him for a moment and then she slowly stepped over his still body. She entered the room containing the five growing fetuses. She moved from one to the next caressing the artificial wombs, letting her fingers dance on the membranes. She whispered, “We are safe now.”

G Michael Smith is a poet, novelist, and children’s book author. He has written four science fiction novels in The Forevers Series (“Mind Storm”, “Traveler”, “Master Wu”, and “Omie the Mind Mage”); a mid-grade novel titled “Hijacked - A Beechwood Adventure”; written and illustrated three children’s books, “The Accidental Adventures of Bernie the Banana Slug”, “Lily Liar and the Eleventy Headed Monster” and “Tiny Tina and the Terrible Trouble”. He has since completed two new novels titled “The Prison of Power: A Man-Made Tale” and “A Kestrel Circles”. He lives with his wife on Vancouver Island where he has raised three daughters. As well as being a prolific author he dabbles in wood working and plays a mean game of Pickle Ball. You can find him online at gmichaelsmith.com.

---

a literary journal for work that nourishes and lingers

                    instagram | threads | facebook | duotrope | chill subs