REVISION 7: DNA has been at the number one slot on Amazon’s best selling list for hard science fiction several times in the past year and a half. It has been one of the highest viewed books on Scribd. And it’s been featured on BookBub and The Fussy Librarian, as well as other book-lover sights.
My personal background is in hardware engineering. I’ve not only worked as a technician and repaired systems while in the US Air Force, but have worked as an engineer and designed devices for the military, the medical industry, and consumer products. I switched to writing about technology in the 1980s and have spent the last 30 years or more researching and writing about the latest components, devices, and technologies. I have worked with major corporations throughout the country, as well as NASA and Space X, and have published hundreds of technical articles in magazines with literally hundreds of thousands of subscribers worldwide.
My love of words and writing has found me exploring all genres including fantasy, thriller, mystery, mainstream, poetry, and, of course, science fiction. My favorite science fiction authors are some of the old-timers like Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Greg Bear, and many others.
I’ve written a lot of sci-fi short stories and novels. I tend to explore several subjects at once in my novels, often combining different ideas or technologies to help explain one another. In REVISION 7: DNA, I explore time travel, robotics, and dark energy, as well as split-brain operations and psychic abilities. My main characters have unique skills, and have been fun to work with. I have already written a second book with these main characters, where I focus on Mavra, the psychic more than on her husband, Neil. BACKYARD ALIENS is less technical and more humanistic than REVISION 7: DNA, which allowed me to explore their relationship from a new angle.
Writing, for me, has always been an exploration into unknown territory, whether the characters’ personalities and psychologies or the technologies and applications of future engineering.
REVISION 7: DNA
by Terry Persun
Published by Booktrope Editions, 2012
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank Mark Mandell who listens to my crazy ideas and helps me separate the good ones from the really stupid ones; my wife, Catherine, who is always my first reader, and Janna Balthaser for her amazing editing skills.
Chapter 1
The machine sat empty in the corner of the lab adjacent to a long row of workbenches laboring under the weight of electronics equipment. Operating panel lights blinked occasionally in random test sequences to no avail until, on this night, the machine became a receiver. Lights blinked faster, fan motors whirred into action, and the hull of the gutted OH-6A Army helicopter groaned with the magnetic surge from the coils that lay like curled hair along the roof of its cockpit.
The inside of the OH-6A sat empty. A moment later someone sat on the stool inside the hull. He did not fade into view. He appeared. He sat completely still as though unsure of where he was. He shook his head and perked up in a sudden motion. His face lifted toward the sky, a distorted smile of relief spreading across it.
From his hidden side the man raised a small-gauge target pistol and set it on his lap. He rubbed his face and shook his head again. He patted himself as though he wasn’t sure that he was all there, as if he could have left a piece of himself somewhere else. He turned toward the camera that stared at him from the far side of the room. Lifting the gun from his lap, he aimed and pulled the trigger. The gun made a puff and a ping sound, hardly audible as it shot out the camera lens. The man stepped down from the helicopter and reached inside to slide the stool out before chucking it aside. He glanced around the machine, checking the equipment off mentally, shaking his head from time to time. Another person appeared inside the hull. This one didn’t hesitate or act confused in the least. He touched his shirt collar as though making sure it was buttoned to the top, then stepped from the machine and stood at attention next to it. A third person came through and, with his head lowered, climbed from the hull of the helicopter to stand next to the confident looking one.
“Our plans have changed,” the first one said.
“What do you mean? Why change them now? We just arrived,” mister confident said.
The first person shook his head as though confused a bit. “It’s important. I need to go back home and take care of something.” Before anyone could comment further, he swung around and said, “I have to. You’ll just have to go along with it for now. It won’t change anything. Just push the plan back a few days.” He walked around the machine as far as he could without running into the web of wires. “We’re taking the whole thing except for the magnetic coils on top. We’ll need them later. Any other equipment that is wired to the machine and not mounted to it, put on the cockpit floor.”
The other two removed the coils and set them on the floor near the workbenches.
“It looks heavy,” the third one said.
“Stripped down it only weighs 198 pounds. We can carry it out through the back parking lot.”
“You’re sure the guards won’t notice?”
He looked annoyed by the question. “There are three guards on the campus, and they make their rounds…” He stopped and cocked his head. “I’ll fill you in later if you really need to know. Let’s just get out of here for now.”
Within a few minutes, the electronics equipment connected to the helicopter from the adjacent workbench had been placed inside. The machine was disconnected from the electrical box, and all the other equipment unplugged.
The three of them had no trouble carrying the helicopter hull through the double-wide lab doors and into the service elevator. One man on either side and one in front, they each gripped the machine with one hand, holding their tools and weapons in the other. As they moved, the first person who had come through the machine aimed with programmed precision to shoot out the cameras. He repeated the act as they traveled to the main floor, down the hall, and out the back in less than fifteen minutes.
They scurried across the back parking lot like a clumsy insect, and disappeared into the dark woods that surrounded the Wheatley Research Center.
Walking became a bit more difficult in the woods. The hull caught on low branches and they had to lift it above some of the underbrush. A series of toe paths crisscrossed through the woods, but they only traveled short distances on any one path. Eventually, they set the hull at the edge of a ridge and began to dismantle it.
“You know what to keep,” the first person through the machine said.
“Got it right here,” the third person said. “What do we do with the rest of it?”
“Take apart the machine and scatter the components.” He leaned over the embankment. A small trickle of water ran along the bottom. “Roll the hull into the ravine.”
The first one put a hand to his temple. “We’re a few days early. We can stay here for now.”
“Early? For what?”
“I told you. I have something to take care of.”
“And what happens when they find this gone?”
“That won’t happen today. It’s the weekend. I checked it out before we came through,” the first one said. “This lab will be empty for the next few days. The guards aren’t allowed in. They’ll report a few cameras out. They won’t even come inside.” He glanced over and watched as the third one through the machine rolled the hull over the embankment. “Leonardo, where is the dark energy balancer?”
“Over there.” Leonardo lifted his head long enough to point to a silver box with wires hanging from it lying next to a large pine tree. As he walked back he said, “Why don’t we go to the factory with the rest of them and wait there?”
The first one shook his head. “There is no ‘rest of them.’ The others aren’t here. We’re alone. You have got to time stamp when you are.”
