The first batch of Morlocks was moved the following week.
Fifty individuals. Mostly the sick, the elderly, children, and those with unstable powers. Callisto came with them—not because she needed to, but because she wouldn't let others go without her.
We used the same freighter we scouted with. Different name this time. Same blank paperwork trail.
The journey was uneventful. The disembarkation, quiet.
Callisto stepped onto the island before anyone else. She looked at the buildings—grey, uniform, industrial—but clean. New. Standing firm under the coastal wind. She didn't say anything at first.
Then: "You actually did it."
"I said I would."
She nodded, then turned to the others. "Let's move."
The Morlocks were guided into the housing blocks. Each family or small group was given a shared unit. There were basic instructions, a schedule, food distribution protocols. Emma had it organized down to the hour.
There was no celebration. But there was no fear either.
That was enough for now.
GENESIS-3 arrived two days later.
Its components had been smuggled in across multiple shipments. I oversaw the assembly personally. No one else was allowed in the vault—not even Emma during calibration.
GENESIS-3 was working. But it wasn't enough.
Too many limitations in its data handling. The sequencing protocols were still slower than I wanted, and the interface was only semi-autonomous.
So I started redesigning it.
GENESIS-4 would be built from the ground up—core rewrite, better modular components, higher efficiency. I sourced rare alloys, upgraded processors, and installed a new integrated storage matrix.
Emma kept the logistics smooth. I focused on the design.
Two weeks later, GENESIS-4 came to existence.
Smaller, faster, and more responsive. The memory core could now store full biological datasets for hundreds of subjects. And more importantly—it could begin correlating patterns.
That's when I shifted priorities.
We weren't ready for gene editing yet. The technological level of this time won't allow it.
But still I needed to do what I could. So I started with the basic things I had at hand.
First, I recorded data.
I began the documentation phase.
Callisto helped organize the process. One at a time, the Morlocks came into the main facility. I took note of everything:
Name:
Age:
Mutation type:
Power category:
Side effects or instabilities:
Current health status:
And the most important.
Blood sample.
I logged each file under a new codename structure, stored in GENESIS-4's database.
Each subject was assigned a private medical file, indexed by gene activity range and symptom profile.
It wasn't fast work.
But within three weeks, I had the initial profiles for nearly 200 Morlocks. Another hundred were pending.
Fortunately the data was neatly organized. And already showing early patterns—certain powers clustering by physical traits, or recurring mutations appearing in different individuals with no shared family line.
Still, I held back from analysis.
I needed the right tools first. Even though the required tools were not present I could still make to with those available to me.
While Emma handled the Academy setup, I focused on the lab.
The villa's basement vaults were expanded—tunneled deeper and reinforced with new materials. Three new sectors were added:
Sector A: Bio-sample storage
Sector B: Processing and diagnostics
Sector C: Future testing chamber (still sealed)
I sourced new equipment—centrifuges, spectrographs, gene mapping arrays, custom-built microscopes.
I built it to rival any lab in the world.
By the time construction ended, the core lab was sealed under six meters of reinforced concrete and metal. Triple-locked, filtered air systems, and isolated power. Only Emma and I had access.
Then I waited.
Three months passed.
Housing expanded. The Academy started basic literacy and power-control instruction. Morlocks formed work teams and patrol groups. The island was stable.
And GENESIS-4?
It was going to be upgraded again.
The next upgrade would be the last before real study began.
I had the design of GENESIS-5 in mind already.
With it, I'd finally begin work on the X-Gene.
***
GENESIS-5 took longer to build.
Not because of a lack of materials—by now, supply lines were stable, and Emma had trained a small logistics team among the Morlocks. They handled deliveries, security, and inventory.
No, the delay came from design.
GENESIS-5 wouldn't just be faster or more compact. It had to function independently. Autonomous scanning, pattern detection, adaptive analysis. I needed something close to a dedicated research assistant—capable of running cross-sample comparisons, flagging anomalies, and simulating corrections.
The computing hardware of this era was inadequate. So I designed most of it from scratch.
Magnetic core memory wasn't fast enough. So I created a hybrid storage system—magnetic tape backed by an array of specially treated memory crystals. It wasn't as advanced as what I had known before I came to this world, but it would serve.
The interface was voice-assisted now. Primitive, but usable.
Two months into the build, the prototype was running simulations on mock data. By the third month, the final shell was assembled.
GENESIS-5 was functional.
And for the first time since I began this project—I had a system capable of handling real genetic analysis at scale.
I didn't start the X-Gene work immediately.
Before any of that, I spent a full week running live diagnostics on every recorded sample.
I cleaned the database. Removed redundancies. Re-indexed based on newly observed correlations. GENESIS-5 now held full profiles on over 350 Morlocks—each tagged, coded, and archived.
The system's internal diagnostic algorithms began mapping base patterns. No editing. No assumptions. Just observation.
I created a classification grid:
***
Stable Mutation: No significant side effects or physical deterioration.
Unstable Manifestation: Secondary symptoms, but power under general control.
Biological Risk: Dangerous mutations causing illness, decay, or breakdown.
Unknown Class: Unclear patterns, pending deeper analysis.
***
Callisto was among the first cataloged under Unstable Manifestation.
Masque—Unknown Class.
Some entries were more worrying than others.
But I wasn't here to fix them immediately.
First, I needed to understand what I was dealing with.
On the surface, the island ran smoothly.
The Academy expanded its scope—Emma brought in Morlocks with teaching backgrounds, and others were trained to fill gaps. Children received regular instruction. Adults were rotated through skill and power-training sessions.
Small teams were formed for infrastructure maintenance, security, agriculture, and logistics.
Emma handled most of it now. She rarely asked questions about the lab anymore.
She knew I was close to the next phase.
And she didn't need to be told what that meant.
At the end of the third month, I stood in the vault chamber where GENESIS-5 now rested—its core softly humming, lights pulsing in steady rhythm.
On the console, lines of genetic sequences moved across the screen.
The documentation was done.
And now, finally, it was time to begin what I came here to do:
Understand the mutant genome.
The X-Gene.
****************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170