Page 166 of Light Leech

White pulsed down the center of his chest from a previously unseen line. The line separated a crack, then let out a gust of steam before opening wide.

If I hadn’t already grown used to the abomination that was David, I would have vomited.

It looked up at me and turned its head towards Naoma, pivoting on its neck like a frog.

“What is it?“ I asked.

It focused back on me. Multiple tubes and wires connected to the back of its naked body. Cradled like an infant and looking like one, it was about as large as my head. Though I wanted to call it human, its infantile form was aged much more than any human child. It was rather smooth and free of wrinkles–save the folds in the skin–but its gaze had an uncomfortable sense of knowing. I could see the veins though its pale skin and the subtle pulsations of a heartbeat. It had neither nipples, nor a naval. There was a small, phallic shape in its groin that looked like it had not yet developed into complete genitalia, though it was enough to call it a male. I mustered up the courage to look at his face. Two slits showed the beginning development of a nose, right above his lipless mouth. He had baggy eyelids rimming too-large eyes with widely dilated pupils, making him appear almost cartoonish. He had no hair, nor was there any hint of growth. He wheezed out what sounded like a laugh. His voice was childlike, though with an uncomfortable distortion, like a sign of nature refuting its hands in creating this thing.

Naoma cleared her throat. “It’s a Predecessing Homunculus.”

The thing wheezed. “Water.”

Next to its head a tube leaked with blue light-infused drops. Naoma pinched it between her forefinger and thumb. She moved it close to the thing’s mouth but pulled back as it leaned over. It didn’t have the energy to fight her for it.

“Water,” he asked again.

“Are you a Beacon?”

He looked at me and pleaded for water as if I would have any more mercy than her.

“What is a Predecessing Homunculus ?” I asked.

“A horrific attempt to resurrect the dead. I’ve seen it once. Do you remember Minney Jar?”

“I’m not that into older music, but I know him. Is he still alive?”

“Oh, he died, but they tried to bring him back. He did a solo tour a year ago I think.”

“Right, and a lot of people complained that his body was too augmented to make him the real thing?”

She nodded. “It was obvious to anyone that he was more and than human at that point. Anton went over this with me because he was considering investing, but it crashed out. I thought the market was dead, but apparently not.”

“Was Minney a thing like this?”

“They tried to cover it up, but yes. Anton showed me because he had some industry friends that warned him not to invest when the ‘resurrected’ star was nothing more than a mechanical suit of a failed attempt at a human clone.”

“Did they clone him before his death?”

“No. Did you ever see any of those old mindshows where they tried to revive extinct species by using their remnants? They used blood preserved in ancient mosquitoes, but with how far modern tech has come, they figured out how to do it with bones. They’ve done it with a couple of species close to extinction or those who recently went extinct, but in theory it should have been easy with humans.”

“But they’ve already cloned humans.”

“Species and things like twins, yes, but this was a way that pulled… I don’t remember all the neuroscience, but they could bring back the same person. Same vocal cords, bones, memories, all from bones.”

“But the bones didn’t play out for the body?”

She gestured to the homunculus. “Obviously, but if what I heard was true, they were able to recreate a portion of the brain, resurrecting memories from that being that once existed.”

“Hippo…” The homunculus didn’t have enough breath to finish its thought.

Naoma looked at me. I nodded. She fed the dripping tube into his mouth.

He spit it out.

“Ungrateful–” She stopped talking as he pointed to an open port in the side of his chest. She connected it and something within the machine turned to help the water flow.

The homunculus took a deep breath. “Hippocampus.”