There was rain falling, something Bastion greatly enjoyed, the sound of it on rooftops, the smell of it surrounding him, the mist enveloping the city. It was something that took him back to the simpler times in his life, his childhood. That was so many decades ago, but he held onto the memories fiercely, especially on days like today when he faced a rare problem at work that had him stumped.
He didn't have an umbrella, rather he enjoyed the feeling of the rain on his skin as he walked to his office. He lived in a time where people simply didn't get sick, it wasn't a thought or a worry for him, so why not enjoy the moment.
"Incoming message" registered on his ocular implant, "Accepted," he said, more of a matter of habit than need. His lover's image appeared holographically, only he could see it, superimposed on whatever his eyes caught. "Bas you left without saying goodbye." Nicholas said, feigning hurt, "What's the point in trying to wake the dead Nicholas? Especially with this singing you a lullaby?", Bastion replied gesturing to the sky. Nicholas flashed a mischievous grin, "I'm sure you could have found a way to wake the dead, you do when it's convenient to you.", no emotion crossed Bastions face, he stroked his goatee, "Today wasn't convenient, I'm working on a sample that will probably take me all evening at the clinic, was that why you called? To complain about a lack of affection or was something the matter?". Nicholas scowled, "Always business with you Bas, I called because I am being sent off-world tomorrow for a week, can you bring yourself away from your precious samples to me tonight? I'll have dinner ready, let's say 9 pm." Bastion nodded, "I'll see you tonight then." The call ended.
It wasn't that Bastion was intentionally cold, quite the contrary, he loved Nicholas deeply, however, given their positions, his scientific and Nicholas' political, he always had to be careful of how he showed it on the Net. You could never be sure who was watching. Citizens of the worlds today had gotten used to the lack of privacy eons ago, a small price to pay for seeming immortality.
Faced with near extinction due to rapid climate change on their homeworld, mankind focused their best and brightest at establishing peace between the nations and pushing science to its fullest potential. As a result, Mankind had long outgrown the Earth, rechristened it Terra and had expanded to the stars; colonizing planets, pushing their bodies to their full genetic and cybernetic potential. Society changed for the better, the average life span of a human lasted millennia instead of decades, with human bodies becoming stronger, faster, totally resistant to the illnesses of a Pre-Terra world. Men lived as immortals, much in the ways of their fabled gods of old. Technology factored into everyday life as a form of augmentation that allowed society to communicate over the planets.
Instead of wars, and economic gains, a society focused their people into genetic manipulators, and technological gurus, that was the currency and power dynamic of this new world. Of course, there were humans content with simply living, but the truly powerful had their hands in the massive Genetic clinics who were focused on the cellular improvement of humanity, or the technological gurus further advancing the Net and the augmentation capabilities of tech. Politics was still a function, however, they were also grounded in those two focal points.
Bastion was a part of the Genetic Society, The Mutare, their order was one dedicated to furthering the longevity of the race and pushing genetic manipulation to its fullest. He was exceptionally gifted, not just at his job, but at finessing the Net into a tool that allowed him to crack anomalies with impressive skill. He was a prodigy, and one of the prized assets of his genetic bank. He was also young, only 100 years old, a child by the standards of the Terrans, but one that was carded for greatness.
There was a lot of pressure in Bastion's world, from his job to his relationship with Nicholas, who was a prominent Journeyman of their planet. He always had to be the best, which is why he took delight in simple things, like walking in the rain. He took his time getting to the clinic, the problem he faced there was daunting, even for him, and the implications of what he suspected it meant were staggering.
"Bastion Bourin-Kalina, please authenticate your access" the entry AI requested, he extended his hand to the panel where it quickly pricked his finger for blood. "Access granted, good morning Bastion, enjoy your day!" it chirped, he never understood the need for this daily ritual, who else but assigned personnel wanted access to the Genetic Bank anyway? He realized that there was a level of paranoia taking hold, and attributed it to his unease with the study of this new genetic sample he was working on.
He entered his laboratory, and began accessing his files via his implants, interfacing with the technology was easy for him, easier than with most other Mutare, his supervisor always joked that he was an equally gifted technopath as he was a geneticist, well today he was going to put both skills to the test.
"Why are you so different," he said out loud, looking at the test results from the sample. It was a quagmire, every test he ran showed an unusual decay in the cells. The decay pattern was unlike every known file he'd accessed and cross-reference. From invitro, Terrans were imbued with inhibitors that slowed cell decay and inoculated the fetus from every known virus or pathogen. Genes were turned on or off depending on the wishes of the parents, and each fetus was genetically marked. Aging was permitted unto adulthood then stopped permanently.
What Bastion was seeing wasn't just a decaying sample, but one that was untouched by any inhibitors or inoculation. It was like observing the cellular structure of a primitive man, and even then, that was impossible because the sample had an unknown structure to its DNA, a slight deviation that both alarmed and fascinated him.
Accessing the Net, he quickly pulled up three DNA samples, his own, the unknown, and one from the prehistoric database, pulling the later was risky, he didn't have explicit authorization to access the homeworld files, but he worked around it.
Comparing the data, he noticed some fundamentals, his DNA compared to pre-terra man was curious, he studied evolution for a decade, his mind immediately spotted that his DNA showed no natural evolution tendencies and his physical attainment was only viable through engineering. He observed the strange DNA, again, then he overlapped the three samples, then it clicked. The new sample represented evolution, not deviation.
"Unauthorized access detected." Was all he heard from his implants before he lost access to the pre-terra file and he was furious. He tried regaining access but he was firmly locked out. He mentally attempted to upload his discovery to his case files, and even access to that was blocked, this was strange. What happened next was even stranger, he blacked out.
He awoke to the gentle snoring of his partner Nicholas, "Why doesn't he get this fixed!", Bastion thought. Nicholas was one of those Terrans who didn't fully embrace genetic engineering and modulation, he valued his uniqueness, which was something that made him a particularly skilled Journeyman. The snoring didn't really bother Bastion, he found it endearing that in their private moments they were vulnerable with their flaws with each other, something neither man dared show in their work lives.
As he leaned into the man gently kissing him, he began accessing his daily schedule, taking note that he had a rare day off but had a meeting scheduled the following evening with his clinic's director, which he seemed to have forgotten. Forgetting things were not in his genetic or cybernetic makeup, so he was surprised, but given his increased workload it was acceptable. He seemed to be having Deja-Vu about a particularly difficult case he had spent months working on. His database told him the case was unremarkable, and closed, but something nagged him that there was more.
Dismissing it, he got out of bed heading to the kitchen. His meeting was not until noon, so he had a rare lull in his schedule where he could cook a meal for him and his partner. Cooking was one of Bastion's guilty pleasures from as far back as he could remember, it was the one thing that his mother could relate to him given their vast difference in intellect. Rolling through his database he found a particular recipe that was unique to his homeworld, something he enjoyed making and eating equally as it reminded him of home.
Living in a world that was built on human and cybernetic perfection, nutrition was functional now, people consumed generic products that sustained rather than eating for pleasure. It's how the Terrans eradicated hunger. The meal he was about to make was a luxury that was only afforded to him because of his privileged position and that of his partner.
Moving through the kitchen, the room began modulating itself to his personal preferences, opaque walls became translucent giving him a view of the gardens their home was nestled in, lush and green, mountains on the horizon, and full of natural light from the planets orange dwarf sun, light which was filtered by his ocular implants to mimic the light of the human birthplace of Earth.
He started with the bacon, the smell of it cooking would wake Nicholas faster than anything else. His hands and body moving out of familiarity he began cooking breakfast while he started assessing his case files over the Net. There was something still nagging him about one particular file, and every time he tried to access the file, he almost felt like he was being rerouted to something else involuntarily.
This was very unusual, Bastion exercised meticulous control of his cybernetic implants, before becoming a geneticist he was actually tested to be a technopath because of his easy manipulation of data and the web. He projected his consciousness into the web while keeping his body on a piloted program he developed to do mundane physical tasks, there was only so much that could be done from remote access. "There must be a data malfunction," he thought, it was rare but sometimes there was a hardware failure in the processors of one's cybernetics, nothing was infallible. At least submersed directly in the data streams of the web he could run diagnostics.
Being submerged in the web was something not all Terrans enjoyed or was even capable of, biological implants were designed to provide an interface that was simplified to the capability of their users, but Bastion had a gift with manipulating data in the Net as he did for manipulating genetics. "Internal defragmentation requested. Period forty-eight Hours. Visual archive requested with access logs." he instructed. The system produced a virtual 3D map of his memories and case files, personal files were colored purple, his work files blue. Interfacing with a file now would turn it yellow, defective files turned up red. He extended the semblance of his arms to expand all files into a grid, waving his arms he organized his memories by date. There were shades of green. "Work files, but not damaged," he thought. "Suspend all Net access" he commanded, and his cybernetics complied, he felt suddenly very alone, the Net was a part of each Terran's conscious memories from time of augmentation till they die, it was like a tether to the wider network of humanity and data, if human's had a soul, the net was the collective digital soul of humanity. He'd never severed his connection to the Net before, he never had to, but what he was looking at suggested tampering to his memories and that could only come from one place.
He brought up the files in question, they all seem to be connected to a work case, the one that his brain interpreted as closed, as unremarkable. Taking one of the data packets into his hands he began scanning the code, he found changes to the files which is what gave it that orange glow. The work was clever, subtle even, and any other normal Terran wouldn't have picked up the discrepancy, the thing about tampering with recent digital memories was that the brain's true memories would always be out of sync, causing that Déjà vu feeling he experienced. This was a violation that shook Bastion to his core. He knew when he reconnected to the Net, whoever or whatever had tampered with these memories would become aware unless he hacked his own cybernetic brain. Time was of the essence, going off the Net was always reported, and he needed a good reason for it, working quickly he began duplicating the corrupted data and developing backups which were encrypted and blocked to the Net. When he had the time, he would process these data packets in small pieces as to not trigger any alarms for whoever was watching.
"Duplication and Encryption completed" his implants informed him, he developed a plan to trick his internal cybernetics to treat his time offline as sleep time, it was delicate work to be done rushed, but he accomplished it, he also programmed a recurring virus into his connectivity cybernetics which would give him periodic 1 min disruptions from the next for good measure, just as he was about to reestablish his connection, he felt warm lips were pressed into the back of his neck, "Penny for your thoughts lover?" Nicholas said as he embraced his boyfriend, "You and your old Terran sayings, I swear you live in the past" Bastion replied, with a forced chuckle, as his connection to the web fluttered back to life, "Downtime, 1 minute. Connection reset re-established", his implants flashed, out loud he said "Schedule implant checkup due to failed Net connection tomorrow", whoever tampered with his brain may have also accessed all of his systems in the house he had to make this convincing, "I think all of my overtime has burned something out in my system babe, had a nasty glitch connecting to the Net this morning," he said, turning around to kiss his partner, "At least the old body still works disconnected, I didn't burn breakfast" they both laughed, Nicholas stole a piece of cooked bacon before Bastion could swat him away, "I can confirm as your official taste tester, nothing burned here!"
He plated their breakfast, and sat at the table, "I was surprised to find you in bed this morning, I thought you were deployed?" Bastion asked, "Don't you remember babe? They found you passed out at the clinic last night, the medic said for exhaustion, I was asked just before the off-world jump to stay back with you today so you could get some much-needed rest." Nicholas replied, "Funny it took you burning out for me to get some quality time with you." Bastion non-pulsed grabbed a slice of toast, "You know me, always a funny guy" he replied biting into his toast hiding his anxiety.