Earth and Beyond

The police arrived with his boss, a full-time ranking security officer. She motioned to Scott.

“C’mon, we’re going to the station.”

In the back seat of the cop car, behind the detainee, Scott’s supervisor called up footage of what had happened in the lab. She shook her head. “It’s lucky we have her. You did some stupid things. Never get within striking distance when holding a weapon on someone. If you stay out of their reach, you’re in control, if you move in, they have a chance to grab your weapon. Plus you were busy gawking at her like an idiot. Have you never seen a girl before?”

Scott squirmed and looked out the window. One thing he wasn’t used to was being called stupid. “Sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“It had better not. You’ll be reporting for extra training in your off hours.”

“OK.” She gave him a look. “Yes, ma’am.”

At the station, they observed the questioning while Scott filled in details. Looking a little sleepy, his brother Troy showed up to recover the samples, but refused to say what they were. Scott was indignant.

“Why can’t you tell me what she stole? Why would anyone want your lab samples?”

“It’s classified.”

“Classified! Why didn’t you tell me you have secret stuff?”

Troy shrugged. “Because it’s classified. By the way, as soon as I got to the lab I hid your microbiology journal in case it got you into trouble.”

“Thanks. I already got it when my boss reviewed the vid from inside the lab. You’re not mad, are you?”

“Yes, I am.” He grinned at his brother’s expression. “The second article in that journal has so many errors I don’t know how it got published.”

Scott smiled, relieved. “So it seems that girl is what they call a Trans Humanist. They’re obsessed with enhancing people any way they can. If you can’t tell me what the heck you’re working on, or at least that zealots would want it, how am I supposed to do my job?”

Troy put a hand on his shoulder. “Scott, the ‘what’ of what I’m doing is just your curiosity. I think you’re right you should have more information, though. The important thing to know is the labs you’re guarding do have things those Trans Humanists want to use illegally or before they’re ready. The government is getting more and more worried about them. It was no big deal when mechanical and biological alteration beyond ultra pretty hair was just an ideology for wishful thinkers. Now, though, technology has caught up with their wildest dreams of improving the human body and mind. I’ll take the liberty of telling you the department I work for is doing experiments and collecting data to enable the drafting of legislation limiting what the medical community can do to us. Groups of what they call Human Conservationists are popping up everywhere that diametrically oppose Trans Humanism.”

“Oh, man, security stinks.”

“No, you stink at security. Finish your degree and I can help you get a real job in a lab here—as long as you don’t stink at research as much as security.”

“No way am I going to stink! Molecular bio here I come!”