Gerben
34, Delft, The Netherlands
Elizabeth had spent the night swallowing all the food she could find, but it just wasn’t enough. Tucked in a corner of the reactor, she squeezed her tiny body as hard as she could, one last time, to try and split herself — but nothing happened. There was plenty of sugar around, but “even they can’t grow muscle from lettuce!” it said to itself.
She had managed to survive the last four purges, but what was the point now? She would die eventually, anyway.
The morning sun slowly pierced through the lab’s window, hitting the glass wall of the reactor. “If only I could use that,” Elizabeth thought, bathing in sunlight. Losing grip, she started flowing up and down the container, carried by the stream produced by the metal agitator at the bottom. There, in a chaotic whirlpool of germs and air bubbles, she surrendered to the inevitable extinction of its kind.
“You have to find a way to reward the species you want, and penalise the ones you want to get rid of.” Gerben shouted from the corridor.
He entered the lab through the back door, buttoning his white lab coat. A few steps behind him, I was wondering if my blouse was green for a reason. “Probably just aesthetics,” I thought. Three of his students were standing in a corner of the lab, arguing around an obscure piece of equipment, with nametags on their white coats. “Ah, Gerben,” one said relieved, ”how do you open the input pipe?”
Gerben walked towards them, picked up the plastic tube, flexed his muscles and unscrewed it. Surprised, the students picked up the two parts with an expression on their faces that said “Please, don’t ask how long we’ve been standing here.”
“Is your visitor the new undergrad?” Anna asked, noticing my green blouse. “No.” He answered curtly. “Does he look like an undergrad?” She flushed. “I guess not.” “He’s a special guest.” He continued looking at me.
“Unfortunately, the reason for my visit is confidential,” I improvised, “but don’t worry, I won’t be here long.” Gerben smiled. The students boiled inside.
“Have you drained the reactor this morning?” He asked. “Not yet,” Anna said. “We’ve been busy trying to unscrew that plastic cap all morning,” I continued in my head.
Gerben crossed the room and walked over to a glass cylinder connected to measuring equipment with wires and pipes. He switched the agitator off and bent over the reactor, looking at the aggregate that started to form. “Beautiful,” he said visibly excited, “that’ll be the last purge.” He placed one of the pipes inside a waste bucket and emptied half the liquid. “That’s the penalty,” he said smiling. “Bacteria that can’t reproduce quickly enough using the food we’re giving them end up carried away with the waste water.”
“That’s Evolution on steroids” I thought, looking at the pool of microscopic organisms flowing to a certain toxic death, imagining the rest inside the reactor fighting for survival.
Gabriel closed the door behind him carefully, took his usual seat near the window and waited for Bruce to lift his eyes from the papers on his desk.
“Tell me Gabriel, how is recruitment going?” Bruce asked his eyes still on his contracts. “Well, my Lord, we aren’t sure yet. But we might have a candidate worth your consideration.”
Bruce closed his pen and put it back in its holder, removed his glasses and reached out to grab the golden cup of wine in front of him. “Tell me.”
“We knew they started to use their technology to alter the living,” Gabriel said, “but that’s taking them to a wall.”
“Don’t get involved, for now. Let’s see if they figure out the moral dilemma on their own.”
“There is another group, in which the Human worth your attention accelerates Evolution and mutations by controlling its environment. It’s clever. It also is a better fit with Your ways. Maybe he could be of help to You.”
“He?” Bruce repeated irritated.
“I am sorry my Lord,” Gabriel said looking at the floor, “we really think he is the right candidate to assist You in…“
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Bruce interrupted. “I only have sons, and eighty percent of the saints you’ve chosen are men… Times have changed Gabriel! Go back there and find me a woman for that job.”
Gabriel stood up and walked towards the door. “Yes, my Lord,” he said resigned. Outside, he waved at Michael to meet him near the apple tree.
“He won’t have it,” Gabriel said lighting up a cigaret under the tree. “I heard,” Michael replied, removing his earphones, “and He’s put Joan in charge of that recruitment. I don’t know where that new obsession of His comes from, but I hope He gets His sense back soon…”
“Me too.”
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