Clarke walked past the gates to camp and she nodded at Monroe who was on gate duty before she made her way for the dropship.
The upper level of the dropship had become the unofficial meeting point for important matters. In this case, the matter at hand was the book and the meeting tomorrow as well.
Clarke had told the others to round up everyone who had activated or suspected that they had activated powers. Darah's journal probably contained a lot of information and Clarke was planning on reading it and summarising it for everyone who was relevant to the contents of the book in other words anyone who had their powers.
It would probably be a tall order to explain and clarify the contents to 6 or 7 people let alone a 100 so at the moment it was at a need to know basis. Also, it would stand to reason that those who got told now would also tell other people eventually which to Clarke's admittedly painful body sounded like a much better idea than trying to rationalise everything to nearly 100 people at once
Clarke finally reached the dropship and she walked up the ramp and she heard an argument once she had reached the ladder.
"We can all get powers, right?"said Mbege indignantly , "So, I think we should all get a chance to sit in on this meeting. It's bullshit that you think having powers makes you more important than the rest of us."
Raven sighed and said,"Look. Like we told you and everyone else in the camp as much as we would love to sit down and rationalise everything for you, the only person who can understand the contents of that book is Clarke. It's all medical and genetics bull that none of us even get and if Clarke doesn't want to sit down and explain a whole lot of technical crap to everyone in this camp then so be it. You weren't there with us today and believe you me Clarke hasn't had an easy day– none of us have. The rest of us –including Clarke– will help anyone who activates their powers after this meeting. It just makes sense that the ones who actually have powers are here now. So unless you can breathe fire or shit gold please leave."
Clarke heard Octavia explode in laughter and it was then that she decided to intercept before Mbega attacked Raven and probably get himself killed in the process.
As expected, Mbege was standing across from Raven with a murderous look in his eyes. He was so angry that he hadn't even noticed Clarke climb up the ladder or he had simply ignored it.
Clarke sighed wearily and said,"Listen Mbege, like Raven said we're all feeling pretty tired and the last thing any of us need is an argument over this. The people here are here because their powers have activated and with the Grounders circling us we need to know how to defend ourselves because as much as you hate on all of us for being 'special' you know damn well that we are the ones who will have to lead the line in any fight against the Grounders. If you ever activate your powers then I will personally sit you down and explain everything to the nest of my ability. "
The words from Clarke seemed to have nullified Mbege if only slightly and he said,"Alright, I'll leave. Whatever the Princess says goes after all."
He then bumped Clarke's shoulder as he walked past and climbed down the ladder. Clarke rolled her eyes and she sat down opposite the other occupants in the room.
Clarke pulled out the book once she had gotten comfortable and she looked up to see everyone in the room looking at her with a blend of worry and sympathy in their eyes.
It really did mean a lot to Clarke that everyone in the room – even Miller, Harper and Jasper who she hadn't had much contact with – seemed worried about her, but Clarke knew that there wasn't any time for weakness and she decided to put their worries to rest.
"Look guys,"said Clarke as she looked at them," I know what you're thinking and yes Roma and I were more than friends and I am very upset at her death, but I promise I'm handling it."
Clarke paused for a bit to allow her words to settle in and she toyed with her ring for a bit before saying,"I'm still angry at Diana for everything, but trust me when I say she got what she deserved in the end. "
Octavia looked somewhat hesitant as she said,"Did you kill her? Not that I'm judging or think she doesn't deserve it, but–"
"No, Octavia "said Clarke reassuringly to show that no offense was taken,"I didn't kill her. I wanted to, but I think it's better if she lives with the knowledge that everything she had done was all for nothing. Death would have been a mercy she did not deserve."
There was silence after Clarke had spoken and just as it was growing uncomfortable Jasper spoke up and said,"Is that a ring? Where the hell did you get that? I'll trade you like...30 guard shifts for that. I haven't even seen a rusted spoon let alone something like that."
Clarke smiled a little at the words of Jasper before she said,"Well, I'll tell you about it later. Sooner than you think. Anyways, I've already gone over a lot of this and there's a lot to go through so I hope you're comfortable. "
After no one had said anything, Clarke opened the book and said,"Okay, I think first of all what I have to say is that Darah was brilliant. She innovated genetic engineering on Earth and she was a pure genius. She had multiple PhDs in biology, genetics, engineering and zoology. She was really, really smart. "
Raven snorted and said,"Yeah, no shit. I mean I doubt any old dumbass could make something that makes someone be able to shoot beams from their hands or move things with their mind. She was probably the most successful human being ever."
Clarke rolled her eyes and said," Yeah, but strangely enough she wasn't the only super prodigy around. In fact, there's a lot of mention of someone called Becca who was some sort of rival or something, but she barely mentions her at all. The most important thing about this Becca was that she studied pretty much the same stuff as Darah, but Becca was apparently even more successful than Darah was. It turns out that Becca was revolutionary when it came to artificial intelligence and that led to her becoming the richest person alive."
"So you're telling me that there was someone smarter than the person who found a way to give us powers and they were both alive at the same time?" said Monty dubiously.
It was a tough pill to swallow.
"Yeah and Darah didn't like being overshadowed by Becca so that was what ultimately led to her experiments with the American government. You see there had been a lot of people who thought of genetic engineering as immoral and as such Darah didn't have the best of reputations however Becca was praised by virtually everyone thanks to her work in artificial intelligence. In fact, it's some of Becca's early AIs that run a lot of the Ark's processes."
"So basically Becca was this angel while Darah was seen as a monster ?" said Bellamy in question to Clarke who nodded and then Bellamy added,"What experiments?"
"Okay, this is where it becomes less of a biography and we get more in depth on the nanobots. So you see Darah had basically the lead scientist in a project called Project Ascendance. There had apparently been some sort of leak about every army's warfare capabilities and despite a worldwide peace treaty/disarmament being signed the president at the time decided that instead of honouring their treaty they decided to beef up their soldiers which is where Darah came in."
"So, the first nanobots were used on the military of the US? "said Miller as he spoke up for the first time.
Clarke was glad for the question as it was a key part of the story, "Yes, the very first ever nanobots were given to the soldiers, but these were a lot simpler than the ones that were used during the Blight and on us. Darah hadn't quite gotten everything down and it took 449 failures before the first success. Everyone before #450, as Darah called him, died horrific deaths as the serum wasn't perfected and had an extremely high mortality rate."
"449?" said Octavia disgustedly and no one could blame her.
The idea that there was a government willing to allow over 400 of its soldiers to die and there was someone willing to experiment on other human beings really rattled them. It was made worse considering the fact that there was supposed to be peace for the foreseeable future at that time.
"Yes, but she had eventually figured out a way to make even extreme changes to a human's genetic and physical makeup without overwhelming the recipient of this serum. Also, this serum did not actually give the recipient any powers as we think of them, but instead gave them an extreme physical boost. This guy's strength, speed and reflexes were all ridiculous. "
Clarke paused to allow everything to settle in and also see if anyone had questions. It was Harper who spoke up and she remembered Monty saying something about Harper's powers activating on a hunt or something, but she couldn't quite remember what they were exactly.
"Did the military actually use that version of the serum or not once it began to work?"said Harper and it was a question which drew the nods from the others and Clarke suspected she knew what they were thinking.
"No, you see after the first success. A whistleblower had blown the whole thing sky high and somehow before an international court Darah had been acquitted of all charges. The USA, however, had been forced into paying massive reparations to the other countries for violating the treaty and also paid compensation to everyone, including #450, for damages caused,"said Clarke.
"This disgrace was apparently the final straw for Darah and she eventually decided that she was tired of Earth and eventually she became only the second person to have a private space station orbiting the Earth. "
"Second?"said Jasper in confusion.
"Yes, second. Becca beat her to that, but we'll get to that,"said Clarke,"Anyways, Alpha Station on the Ark was actually Darah's private station and it was there where she began working on the earliest version of the nanobots as we know them. So there are quite a few differences between the nanobots and I'll do my best to explain them. You see Darah had continued Project Ascendance on Alpha Station, but she felt bitter about being exposed and villified by virtually everyone so she had decided that she was actually going to sell the completed version of the nanobots to various terrorists organisations and/or governments except this time excluding the United States. "
"So you're telling me her sole motivation for making those things was just to give them to terrorists in the hope that they would take it out on the people who had scorned her? That's one way to get revenge, I guess," quipped Raven in a casual tone that did not at all suit the weight of what she was talking about.
"Yes, but ironically after she had made the Duos version in bulk she had been betrayed by one of her scientists who had actually been working for the government. He had stolen hundreds of vials of the Duos serum for the American government, but he had slipped up in the process and we should be grateful that he had because Darah had managed to convince him to videotape himself saying he worked for the government and the only reason she hadn't been shot out the sky was because she threatened to reveal everything to the rest of the world. If she hadn't gotten that on tape then it was likely that after the Nuclear War that all the astronauts at time might have died since forming the Ark was necessary for everyone to survive and Alpha Station had the most resources by a long way. "
"If all the stations united then why haven't we heard anything about Becca?"said Monty in confusion, "If she's as smart as you're making her out to be surely there would have been records on her or something. Hell, she might have even been Chancellor instead of Darah."
"Do any of you remember the Unity Day story?"said Clarke and she was surprised to hear Octavia pipe up.
"Yeah, I do. Bell used to tell me it whenever I was young," said Octavia and Clarke was glad to see that Octavia didn't appear to be especially angry at Bellamy despite his screw up with the radio. Clarke knew he was probably killing himself over the Culling enough as it was and even Raven didn't have the sneer she had usually had plastered on her face whenever Bellamy's name was mentioned.
"It goes something like this,"said Octavia as she tried to recall the story from her youth,"Long ago, when the Earth was on fire, 12 stations floated through space, all alone. Then one day, Mir floated by Shenzhen, and they realized life would be better together. The other stations saw this, and they wanted to be together too. When all the other stations were joined they called themselves the Ark."
"That's the romantic version we preach about, but remember there weren't just 12 stations,"said Clarke as she waited for the penny to drop.
She saw Bellamy and Raven's faces light up in realisation and she decided to just go for it,"There were thirteen stations remember. We thought the 13th station had been a casualty of the war, but what had actually happened was that the 13th station had decided to not dock with the rest of the Ark and so the Chancellor at the time despite heavy protests from everyone gave the order for Alpha Station to shoot Polaris out of the sky."
Silence.
...