Ultimus: Chapter Three

A few hours after dinner, Kim and Hunter were talking in the living room while Andrew and his puppy were in his bedroom. Kim sat in a chair and was telling Hunter about the message she got from the Terran Federation and that she was required to relocate to Arat Prime. Hunter was livid that they were doing this.

“They can’t do this! Wh-What about your research?” Hunter said in anger yet in a quiet tone. He paced in front of her in the center of the room.

“My research is almost complete here honey. They also said that they have had better results with other research and would rather have me on their Genetic Engineering team for it.” Kim said,

“What other research?” Hunter asked in a surprised tone, Kim looked up at him and shrugged. It took a moment for him to realize what she was implying. When he did, his eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open.

“Our research isn’t conclusive nor are we sure that it would work whatsoever in the real world. Plus the Simulation is no where to be considered a fraction of being complete.” Hunter said.

“They don’t care, they see more success in your test results than the idea of using ordinary animals. They believe in it enough that they are having a project meeting with the URE about it.” Kim said,

“I can’t believe this. They see my research as the future work for the Genesis project and the URE’s project? It’s absurd.”

“Honey, it may be absurd, but it looks like it is the future for these projects.” Kim said, Hunter finally sat down. He was amazed at the accomplishment he made. He was jittering from the excitement. But a question immediately brought him back.

“So we have to go to Arat Prime?” Hunter asked,

“We have no option.” Kim said.

“What are we going to do with Andrew?” Hunter said, “You know the plan for the URE and the Terran Federation. We already know what they did with da Costa, and they plan to do it with everyone. It’s why we moved away from Arat Prime and why we were grateful they stationed you here. We didn’t want them to that to our son.” He continued.

“Well we can’t run for it as fugitives, they’d just arrest us and make us work without pay. We can’t go to the URE because they have the same plan. That leaves us with one option, we let them do it to him.” Kim said,

“What are you talking about? That’s g-.”

“You didn’t let me finish, we let them do it. Just not for a very long time.” Kim said.

“I’m not following?” Hunter said in confusion.

“Let me explain…” Kim said, she explained her plan for Andrew to avoid the Terran Federation to Hunter. He didn’t know what to think of her plan.

“I… don’t know. Give me some time to think about it.” Hunter said feeling at a lose,

“Alright, but we don’t have much left honey.” Kim said with a soft smile, this hurt her just as much as it hurt Hunter. But Hunter wasn’t as reasonable or logical when it came to his family.

He walked down the hallway to Andrew’s room. The dog looked up from its bed in the corner of the room and set it’s head back down after recognizing who it was. Andrew was asleep in his his bed with some sort of very old monster movie on his tv. Hunter watched the movie for a bit but wasn’t paying attention to it. He didn’t like Kim’s idea, it split their family and he never wanted that to happen. He looked at his son sleeping, he was so peaceful.

Hunter would do anything to keep his family safe, even sacrifice himself to do so. But would he do this? Would he split up his family to save his son. He knew the answer to that. And as much as he hated it, Kim’s plan was the only option.