I woke up with great reluctance. I'd like to die there, in front of Ursula's office, then I wouldn't have to give birth to anyone. And I wouldn't have to endure the classical way of fertilization. I peeled my eyelids off and tried to get up, but my hand got into something wet.
- You threw up in your sleep, - said Vitovt as he approached the bed. I remembered that he was the one I saw before I passed out. He must have put me back in the room. - I wanted to clean up, but I didn't have anything to do with it. I'd have to wait for the robot. - He had a guilty smile on his face.
- Let's use the - you,- I wheezed. I didn't want to be important to someone I knew anymore. Moreover, he was no longer my boss.
Rex, hearing my voice, jumped on the bed, wagging his tail, and began to lick my face joyfully.
- Okay, - Vitovt sat down in a clean place next to me. He wanted to seem relaxed, but he couldn't hide his concerns. - You won't tell me what happened? Poirot nearly lost his mind when he saw you unconscious.
- They're trying to make me an incubator, - I explained, stroking the fish pies. - They want to resurrect the eugenics, and they liked my genotype. I'm something like Eve to them.
- I don't think you made that comparison on purpose, but it fits perfectly.
I shook my head and listened to his words.
- You see, there's more to it than just resurrecting eugenics. Are you familiar with the concept of the golden billion? - I nodded affirmatively, and Vitovt continued. - They, that is, Van Drake and his company, want to make this idea a reality. Only a billion of the best people will live on Earth, and after the discovery of other planets of the Earth type - and a billion on them. How they are going to destroy the rest of humanity is still unknown to me.
- How do you know all this?
- I didn't come here as an anesthesiologist, even though medicine remains my passion. As it turns out, my intellectual capacity is currently the highest among our species. No limits, only progress. I played along, pretending to support and approve of the idea of the Golden Billion. Georg decided that I had to understand him more than anyone else, "like a genius" - in this place Vitovt rolled his eyes - and opened all his plans.
And I didn't like them. Poirot is just obsessed with you and delusional about the generation of superhumans, and van Drake imagines himself to be the future regent for young geniuses. Simple inhabitants of the Earth have no place in their plans.
I was silent. I had nothing to say. Actually, I wanted to say so much, but I didn't know where to start.
- What about Victoria? - Finally, I asked her something wrong.
- You saw her, didn't you? - Vitovt covered his eyes. - Her merits are my merits. Everyone who saw her in the case knows what kind of specialist she is. It was a bad idea to drag her here. Bad. They want to kill her anyway. Either immediately or by experimenting.
- I don't understand...
- You're supposed to be carrying superhumans. You are inviolable. But there is another area of science that has long been a source of excitement for scientists who have not been burdened by the morals: experiments on pregnant women and newborns. That's what Victoria wants to offer, but believe me, I've seen these experiments, and she won't survive the first one. She will die, - Vitovt's voice trembled. He loves her, I remembered, and it must be hard for him. - She is my irrational point. As for you, Rex. Even less useful than your dog. But I love her. I dragged Vic into the heat with no thought of the consequences. - It seemed like it was hard for him to say. - In every man, - he grabbed me by the shoulders, - there was the irrational! Only fools deny it, deceiving themselves - such as van Drake.
I didn't want to give birth to superhumans. I didn't want to be a sink. I wanted to go to Earth. I wanted to go out with Rex in a real park, not in a botanical garden. And finally, I wasn't ashamed of all my wishes! I cried in the chest of my former boss - God, it seemed like it was all forever ago! Was he really that man? Was he the one who walked in the corridors of the hospital, so far from all of us?
- We have to do something, - as if I had heard my own husky voice from the outside.
Rex was dried up on my side.
- We should. And quickly. They don't need time. - Vitovt gently shook his hands, letting me out of his arms. I thought he would be ashamed to look me in the eye after the revelation, but on the contrary, he immediately raised my chin with his finger, meeting his eyes.
- I don't like it when they do this to me, - I honestly admitted, taking someone else's hand off my chin.
Rex barked nervously and I shouted at him.
- Finally, the fire woke up in you! - Vitovt smiled approvingly, but seriously, he added. - I have a plan. But he's not perfect.
Rex wasn't getting any better, his barking was getting higher and louder.
- Better than not, - I shook my shoulders, shoving the dog off my chest.