Human (part I)

"Humans".

Over four billion years ago, Earth as we know was born, theoretically containing the parents of our species, evolving from small animals, actually not even animals, but microscopic beings.

Circumstances have changed over the ages, fostering traits that have been passed through generation after generation until they culminated in the apex of our species, which we are today.

This all can be only a theory.

In some beliefs, physical traits may not have been passed down through generations, but more importantly than that discussion: it is not to be denied that there is the legacy of intelligence.

Because we are able to learn far faster than other species, we acquire all the knowledge shared among our ancestors throughout the lifetime of our race in just one childhood.

It took humans a little over a hundred years ago to discover the usage of light. Nowadays nothing is done without it.

By carrying the knowledge accumulated by all generations we were able to dominate all forms of life on Earth. We have been able to expand our usage method of resources to adapt to our worries about sustainability. We were able to even pierce the protective layer of the Earth that houses us. We were able to get off the ground and find life elsewhere. When we discovered Arena we were able to hide an entire planet with reflective material in order to prevent its revelation.

As you can see, due of knowledge the evolutionary potential of the human being is infinite.

Because we don't have wings don't we fill this lack with vehicles? Because we don't breathe in water like fish don't we supply this deficiency with knowledge?

And why would it be any different with indarra? With ductu? Finesses? Sane? The erectism? The anti-ductu? The secrecy?

For the lack of every of these things, the human being invented an answer: the artificial acquisition through devices. Of course, all this is unknown to society, for if surfaced, it would also reveal the existence of the supernatural, so please don't go around spreading any of what I tell you here.

Through direct insertions into the bones during development we attained indarra, through brain stimuli we activate our ability to develop finesses. Soldiers who abandon their natural growth and undergo hard training under government surveillance and hone their skills of interest naturally and artificially can acquire all of these traits.

At least to a certain extent.

These artificial paranormal beings are given the title of "altered humans."

I volunteered for Sproustown's human modification beta program.

I was preparing for military enlistment. I wanted to do something for justice. I lost the love of my life, Betty, when I was sixteen in a disaster. Nothing else made sense to me at the time so I volunteered.

What was I thinking?

I spent nine long years in a modification process that looked more like a torture chamber. Injections applied directly to the bone were given and when the anesthesics faded the pain came together unbearably.

When the pain came we had to go to physical training. After all, a paranormal being who can't fight doesn't serve much good. The idea was to learn to suppress pain and to learn to fight at the same time.

I only have dark memories of that place. Each day passed like a month of suffering. I thought it would never end. I remember thinking of giving up on life several times.

And now that it's gone, I have little to no recollection of what happened there. There is only one thing or two left to me that comes to mind from time to time. But I remember the repeated training a lot, and based on my vague memories I decided to present now the altered humans, race to which I belong, as the third of the ten races classified as dangerous by SAD. And also to jointly present the seven basic characteristics of the paranormal world: indarra, ductu, anti-ductu, secrecy, sane, erectism and finesse.

I've explained the first three: indarra is the high strength that dangerous races have. The zombies, the aliens, actually most of them possess it naturally. But as I said, in altered humans it is achieved by injecting anabolic fluid into the bones during development. Previously it was done on the muscles, which was a less crucial process, but the experiments were flawed. Although they achieved more physical strength, in the long run the altered limbs were very easily broken because they did not support the weight of their muscles while using indarra. This competence was only acquired about thirty years ago by humans, and yet on a relatively smaller scale compared to other paranormal beings

I don't know how they process the ductu. I remember I had to go through weekly experiments where there was a room all lined with insulating material, I put a visor and a hearing aid in my ears and then they would turn on a loud apparatus and something would happen inside my mind. I wasn't exactly in pain, but it was as if my brain received a lot of information at the same time. My head started to hurt and I passed out. Even so, they labeled the experiment successful. I did not understand the assessment.

All I know is that as time went by I felt more and more the imminent danger of paranormal beings. The stronger, the more afraid I feel. Not exactly fear. It is a sense of nervousness; a tension. I felt only a little that day when I was looking for Sprohic because he wasn't much to brag about. But whenever I get close to Joey or Lowe my body triggers it with greater intensity.

With Joey himself it must be similar. Remember how he felt our presence before we entered the shooting practice room, even though he had his earplugs on?

Anti-duct must have been obtained during the same eccentric weekly experiments of the beta training program. Several races manipulate anti-ductu differently. Some can control nothing of their fear, others can release it at will, others only trigger it when the body allows it, others not only release it, but can also direct it to a specific person, keeping it hidden from another.

The lack of the ability of handling anti-ductu does not exactly indicate that the paranormal being in question is weaker. Joey doesn't know how to control his, for example. I put myself more or less in the middle. I can spread anti-ductu to make the fear go away as soon as I want, but I can't direct it to just one person. I never trained such skill. It's only natural for me to turn it on or off. It is comparable to the ability to curl the tongue or move the ears. Some can do it, others simply can't.

Much harder is manipulating ductu instead of anti-ductu,

The name of the ability of mastering the control of ductu is secrecy, present in only a few of the ten races, and yet not in all specimens. This technique was invented by a serial killer about forty years ago in the north of the country. Let's say that just as a talented being can direct anti-ductu to a specific living being, he would direct ductu, that is, inferred fear not in an area around him but in a specific direction. What is the advantage of this? Why hide from another paranormal being. If one does not want to be perceived, one merely directs the ductu to another area. The anti-ductu of anyone will not be triggered, and their presence will not be revealed. This is why the intentional handling of ductu is called secrecy, as it is perfect for maintaining secrecy of its presence as a paranormal being.

As far as I know nobody from SAD knows secrecy. And I think altered humans can't even learn it with technology only. Never heard of any case.

Finesse is the ability to learn in a short time. Based on brain cognition, it's the method by which the brain user tries to learn various skills so that it is useful primarily in fighting or other police activity (at least in the case of humans altered by the police training program). To attain it we had to go to the brain activity chamber, where they put a machine in our head that made impulses in our nervous system. Although it is said to work, this practice has disastrous long-term consequences, so even if it was carried out on volunteer soldiers, it was done moderately.

In this sense, altered humans have a disadvantage with finesses compared to other races. I can learn things faster after I left the beta program, but I could hardly learn to speak a new language in just three days, like a zombie that has just woken up from the grave with no memory of its human life.

The sane is an essential skill for anyone planning to engage in fights against paranormal beings, such as the police or the criminals themselves. Basically it is an accelerated regeneration process.

I don't know what aliens evolved from or from what kind of things they get their traits when they decide to be born, but my gosh... They have regeneration! Remember I said that in order to kill an alien you must separate its head and chest from the body and leave it for over eighteen hours? Failing to do so it can regenerate completely. Of course, once dismembered it will not create new members, but regenerates enough so that it can continue to live even if he is offered medical treatment that leaves it bleeding violently.

The zombie, on the other hand, has a different property: as I said, it must be killed with a lethal wound. If you don't, nothing happens. It can suffer a lot of damage, lose blood, have its bones broken, and it will keep moving whatever limbs it still can. As long as it's not fatally injured it'll remain standing. The zombie does not regenerate, but does not fall until it dies, living up to the name of the race in reference to popular belief. It is a different biology, but these properties are all referred to as sane, or the ability to overcome serious injuries in a short time by whatever method.

Do you recall there was a recent stem cell research, which was even barred by some governments for policy issues. So... It turned out that one can use periodic application of stem cells in the human body to speed up their regeneration. It accelerates all vital systems: circulatory, endocrine, sensory... And with that also skin regeneration. Of the flesh. Of the bones.

The disadvantage is that the cells must be applied periodically while regeneration takes place, and the body becomes addicted. It is applied through powerful drugs so there is no way to overcome the addiction.

These drugs come in tablets labeled as STP.

Like all drugs, STP have a harmful effect on the body: If you take the drugs while the body does not need regeneration, too many cells can cause complications in the body's normal functioning.

It may sound crazy, but the way technology found to make it work is to addict the body and always need regeneration. In other words, before taking our daily dose of medicine, if we are not seriously injured, we self-mutilate ourselves to channel surplus cells!

We don't need the cells, but this is done just to sustain the addiction. We justify their need by seriously injuring us on purpose.

This was the only means found to combat the other races with comparable sane. Thanks to STP we can easily recover from bodily injuries that would last months as well as endure various injuries without losing consciousness. Both features are essential in the work of a SAD investigator.

Which brings us to the last basic trait of a paranormal being: erectism. Erectism is nothing more than the ability to endure pain. Its manifestation in a zombie is very high and inherent of the species. Remember Sprohic was shot and kept standing and smiling before it was captured.

An alien also has a high degree of erectism, given that it does not faint if radically maimed, enduring pain until the sane wounds its own injury, which takes no more than two or three days, and we are speaking of dismemberment.

The first attempt to artificially reproduce erectism on a human was through strong drugs. Luckily I didn't catch this phase in the beta program. The experiments failed miserably: one cannot effectively fight while the conscience is altered.

The remaining alternative was to let the sane take care of erectism on his own. Since we will not lose consciousness unless the injuries are really very serious, during out training we learn to simply endure pain.

That's why they made us remain active after regular injection of anabolic fluid. It was the worst kind ofpain, and we had to learn to get used to living with it, so when we suffer injuries nowadays, after all those long years of training, we don't care very much.

You see, it's not that we don't feel pain. We just learned to support it. It is result-based training that varies from agent to agent, but is still considered a form of erectism. How jealous am I of a zombie who feels no pain in any nonlethal injury.

But if you compare its intelligence with ours, I don't think I'd rather be a zombie. It may have high learning rate, but I have never seen any zombies apply the learning ability effectively.

The most interesting about all this is that the government didn't think of artificially altering human consciousness to make the soldiers obey orders blindly. Of course, all much better for me. But from their perspective, if this is such a confidential process, they could have made an unconditionally obedient army, earning much more that way. I think someone big with a politically correct mind must have held the big minds down so that they couldn't do that.

The matter is, in spite of everything, we have not yet lost humanity; our free will. And so the main human feature still remains: malice. And that's why I can't blindly trust altered humans... or even average humans.

In other words, that's partly why I don't trust Richard Galloway... And especially not Cole Chapman.

It was a Friday and we were at Ivory Beans in Glen Meadow. I had a delicious cup of panna and Joey a regular espresso. He was facing a table where Crane was alone with his current boyfriend: Richard Galloway. A suspiciously reddish-skinned scoundrel-looking-like man who treated people with covert kindness. Crane told me he was a downright fellow, but she met him through Chapman, so even though I know she wouldn't lie to me, I still don't know how true that is.

Galloway had been looking for a job in a variety of areas and had not been successful at any for more than months, which further aggravated my schism about him. Joey caught me staring at him across the table with a scowling expression. He deliberately made a loud noise over the sip of coffee, which drove me out of my thoughts.

"Lieutenant? Don't tell me you picking up a fight, now?"

"Humph... I was thinking of something else."

"Just thought it was kind of unethical to stare at your enemy uninterruptedly in public, even more since we didn't bring Emma or her boyfriend along, but happened to find them both in the cafe."

"Galloway's not my enemy."

"Hummmm..."

He took another sip of his espresso. I was almost done with my panna, so I reached into my pocket for cigarettes.

"It's a coincidence and a half," he said, "funny Emma hasn't seen us yet."

"Leave'em be. We'll be seeing Crane the whole afternoon, after lunch"

"Galloway already looked here. But he must not have told anything to her." Joey looked surreptitiously toward them. He was clearly making fun of me, bringing the matter over and over.

"Humph."

I tried to change the subject:

"Sarah said she's going to do a mini conference. All investigators must be present after lunch."

"Oh yeah? About what? The alien or the zombie?"

"The alien. I don't think we'll get anything from the zombie. Its case has now passed into Silverbay jurisdiction."

Galloway got up and headed for the bathroom. I lit my cigarette and conveniently turned my chair upwind. Crane was apparently apprehensive at her table, drumming incessantly. Joey was casually watching Galloway's back as he disappeared from our sight. I swear we weren't staring at the couple. The subject was already gone, but even then Crane stood up and came resolutely toward us.

"Dear lord! You're an asshole, did you know that?"

She was addressing me. I could be her superior, but we were on break time. She amended:

"I told you, you don't have the right to give your opinion on who I meet outside of SAD. And now what do you do? You're starting to peek! Don't you have anything else to do!?"

I kept smoking my cigarette without looking at her directly. I caught a glimpse of Joey casually staring at me slyly.

"You have nothing to do with this!" She exploded.

"Ivory Beans is the best place for the break. Just that, Crane. What makes you burst this way? Is that that time of the month?"

She stared at me for a moment, but without any answer she returned to her table. Galloway was already coming back.

"As I said, what a coincidence, heh?" Joey said.

I didn't answer.

"Even though it was the lieutenant yourself who chose the place and time..."

I exhaled the smoke.

"Ah! I got it wrong... She did realize after all!"

"What's your point, Joey?"

"Just ruminating, that's all." He straightened his stance in his chair and started to finish his coffee. "Why do you hate him so much anyway?"

"I don't trust him."

"You look like a dad taking care of his fifteen year old daughter."

"I have reasons. I won't mind every single loving thing of my employees. I just don't like it when there are cases between the employees themselves, just as much as I don't like when there are cases between them and suspicious people who are used to cheating the police. It deflates the credibility of the department."

"Hummm... And what reasons would those be, lieutenant?"

"He's friends with Chapman..."

Joey glared at me in contempt, slamming the cup on the table top.

"Really, Henry? You're gonna pick on Cole even on this?"

"Chapman is unreliable. That solicitous carcass of his is a facade."

"There's nothing wrong with Cole, lieutenant."

"You know nothing about him."

Joey was going to say something, but just opened his mouth and then closed it. I set out a consideration:

"You can't trust new agents that way, Joey. Remember the police is corrupt. Any agent who has a lot of involvement with the other departments, or worse, with a political party, should be cautiously dealt with."

"You trust Lowe."

"It's different. Ewaly... Lowe worked with Sarah during the time she was away. Sarah's contacts are reliable."

"Ewalyn? You're calling her 'Ewalyn?' Hummm..."

I scratched my chop.

"I got confused, that's it. And what's the deal? I call you Joey instead of Meyers all the time."

"You refer to Emma as Crane since she started working at the head office. Lowe is here in SAD for what? Two days? What's this, Lieutenant? Do I see a biased attitude? Could it be because of her body?"

"I'm married, Joey."

"I sure did realize the lieutenant was a little different yesterday afternoon... More helpful than usual..."

All that talk was already blushing me. I needed another cigarette.

"Joey... The only one out there getting involved with every new woman his eyes catch ahead is you. By the way you should stop that."

"What can I do? The chicks love me..."

He uttered that kind of sentence without any reservation.

"Guess what!" He said decisively. "Since the lieutenant is tied up, I'll see if Lowe falls into my lap. A redhead is not bad at all."

He glanced at me again with that same sly frown. Was he waiting for an answer of mine?

"No engagement between coworkers," I replied resolutely.

Joey just let out a micro smile without changing his features.

At that moment I received a message on my mobile phone. It was Sarah.

"The cap'n is rushing us. We need to head to the office."

"Crane is going to be there... This might get a bit embarrassing... You should apologize to her, Lieutenant."

"Apologize for what? I didn't do nothing."