Hypersubjects

by Ainsley Komper

  The institution, as it turned out, was not alone in this quest. Many places in the world were on the lookout for enhancing drugs in order to sell them to the military. What made its approach so peculiar was that the part supervised by Velia considered a valuable asset to have Mother Nature as the first natural enhancer. While other facilities or projects worked on enhancing perfectly healthy and normal individuals, the institution focused on specimens where some upgrading had already taken place, courtesy of evolution, and the idea was to give an extra push. Americans and Russians were all about Robotics and Cyborgs, centring their efforts on bionic upgrades to their soldiers while Chinese and Indians were working intensively on genetic modifications. The British, who were a bit behind in technology in both fields, decided to fund this peculiar approach on the side and it was paying off as it gave them an edge over the rest of the world, so they thought. Only high members of the government were briefed on a regular basis about this project, including high-rank militaries who were always very cooperative when implementing tests and measuring results. It took years for Dr Velia to be able to see the big picture and play an important role within. There were many failures, unfortunate missteps and wrong courses of direction which paused several initiatives. Finally, their biggest breakthrough came in the shape of a treatment to enhance neural connectivity that had mild effects on regular homo sapiens, but when applied to individuals with already high or different connectivity, the results were breathtaking and also unpredictable. It was not what she was looking for exactly but she knew that, at some point, if the treatment became a success, a procedure to control its effects may lead to a cure for her own condition. However, with the years, it became more to her than just finding a drug to control her psychosis as Velia enjoyed her position at the institution. She lived for the power so hard to possess, for the challenges so difficult to overcome, for being listened to at the board, for all of her achievements, and especially for being in control. She sacrificed most of her personal life and devoted most of her time to the projects she was involved with, which were many.

  Dr Velia saw the concept of improving neural connectivity as a franchise that every scientist was free to explore on his/her own terms. As long as they could achieve a way to improve that connectivity, they were on her radar. One of the most difficult parts of the process was to find a suitable subject with some sort of high connectivity and then pair him or her with a project or a scientist. There was a whole department dedicated to look for subjects with several types of genetic enhancements or “hyper subjects” as she unofficially called them. The board had agreed to the importance of the search but it was paramount for them to keep it under the radar. They did not want newspapers, magazines or online media exposing their activities so the process to look for candidates was creative to say the least. Implementing presence in clinical trial circles was the first net which expanded to online forums, hospital referrals, social media profiling, fake documentaries casting for characters and cases and many other ways that helped them to list all sorts of individuals blessed by their genes. The type of subject most valuable was the one with unusual brain activity, but slowly, they decided to widen the net as the system was starting to show results. Dr Velia was not the only one supervising as her teams were always at the forefront. She put pressure on herself to be competitive, made her presence necessary at the institution and gained the trust of the board in its entirety. Gabriel Andrews, one of her bosses, was the one most closely monitoring all of her projects and her biggest fan.

  “It seems you are reaching a pivotal point, several subjects are showing impressive signs of progress, breaking barriers never crossed by any human being.”

  “That we know of.” She replied to Gabriel.

  “Velia, after so many years, it must be overwhelming to be arriving at this stage. You know that things will change eventually if you keep advancing at this rate.”

  “You mean that the government would want to test this in the field?”

  “I mean that your baby will grow and won’t be yours anymore.”

  “I know but that is not my main concern.”

  “So, what is it then?”

  “The subjects themselves. I tried to think of them as lab rats but what if they decide not to be?”

  “Well, they are not lab rats in the first place and they should not be feeling like that. However, legally, we have covered our bases for them to be just that.”

  “Yes, but what if they cannot handle the new changes? What if they rebel against us?”

  “You sound like they may create a Union.”

  “They could for all we know.”

  “Then make sure of what we discussed. Keep them apart for as long as you can. Do not allow communication between them. Make them feel that their situation is unique and that we are their best partners to walk this new path, this great adventure.”

  “Of course, it is just that some of them may be unpredictable, untameable.”

  “Do what’s necessary. You have all the resources at your disposal.”

  Dr Velia knew she was venturing into delicate territory and even if she had the backup of the whole board and the assistance of Gabriel in any matter, she was clearly overstepping the institute boundaries of human rights to say the least of their legal problems. However, she kept telling herself and the people involved that these were extreme circumstances. The presence of the military through a Special Unit made her uncomfortable but there was nothing she could do about it. As a necessary evil to achieve her plans and the institution’s agenda, the Special Unit took charge of the inevitable dirty laundry left by the messy cases.

  The varieties of Synesthesia were one of the most productive areas she was working on. It was such a broad condition, interrelated to many others. Unpredictable but fascinating, Synesthetes were regular people to the rest of the population, only that their brain had a slightly different “wiring”. Common definitions were that their senses were “crossed”, hence the interaction between them. However, that assumption was narrow if not unrealistic. The “wiring” of the brain is such a complex design that a condition like Synesthesia was beyond human comprehension for now. What turned out to be interesting was boosting that wiring through different types of stimulation. Medicine could not rearrange it but make it bigger, overflowing the circulation of electricity and studying the impact in the organism. The first attempts were clumsy, some of them with dire consequences which almost shut down the whole project. The multiple contributions coming from scientists of many different fields helped to direct the research in the right directions because there were many right and wrong ones. More than fifteen years in the project had finally started to pay off. There were no casualties, permanent traumas or impairing effects. What is more, the treatments had lasting and controllable effects, but Velia realised they were not ready for success. The Non-Disclosure Agreements seemed like small measures to keep the research and its achievements contained. The family life and social circumstances played an important factor in the way each subject was able to handle his or her new condition. It was agreed by the committee to keep the subjects apart from each other but Gabriel and Velia knew that such a measure would not be enough. Some subjects had completely lost control of who they were during the process, menacing even the most common social boundaries. Despite psychological treatment provided, they behaved erratically, thus posing a threat not only to the institute but to society, hence they had to be dealt with. Events of that nature hardened her approach to the subjects progressively. When Mercy Rogers arrived at the program, she predicted it would be an incredible challenge if everything went according to plan. Her condition was intense and very rare as she could create an instant connection with the people around. At the beginning, for Mercy, the institute plans were to study the way that her connection could flow in opposite directions. The theory was to make her able to influence other people in the same way they were able to affect her. It was a long and difficult process to draw techniques and proces
ses from previous researches. It came to her attention that other subjects were posing a threat to the institute, including a Latvian guy who had to be quickly dealt with and now the strongest Synesthete they had worked on. His evolution and psychological profile indicated that, sooner or later, he would be on the loose. The tracking of his movements was intensified and the contact with fellow subjects was reduced to a minimum. She had picked Lark, the most malleable subject, the one they could control the easiest due to a history of addiction as his only contact. However, Braith and Mercy were growing in power and also in attitude. Velia started to prepare for the worst, her paranoia increased considerably due to the great lengths that Mercy could reach if things blew out of control. Braith was more like a huge angry tiger that could be shot with a tranquiliser, but on the other hand, Mercy had the potential of becoming a great criminal, difficult to put a leash on. Velia’s paranoia led her to create several back-up plans in case of different scenarios. She was one of the direct supervisors in the study of Miss Rogers and, with time, she became gradually sympathetic to the subject. Mercy was vulnerable, insecure and fragile, almost waiting to be protected from a world that constantly hurt her. With not much family left and very few friends, loneliness was part of her life. When she met her for the first time, she felt an instant connection with her as if they were destined to be friends. Velia was expecting to understand more about Synesthesia from a different perspective. Mirror to Touch Synesthesia was a very peculiar variety and finding someone with extreme symptoms was not easy. Mercy’s condition was manageable to a certain degree, looking normal for some periods of time and about to crumble at any second for others. The way she was connecting with people, their external sensations and sometimes their inner emotions was fascinating. One day, when Velia arrived during the routine physical examination, Mercy looked at her.

  “I am so sorry.”

  In that moment, Velia understood how powerful Mercy was.

  Earlier on during the day, Velia’s father revealed to her that four months ago, he was diagnosed with a terminal disease. There was not much time left for him but he did not want to disturb her with the news because of all of the important developments happening in her career. Besides, he was hopeful there would be a way to fight back his disease until a few days before. Velia was trying to use all of the resources at her disposal, even knowing there was little to do. Once at work, looking at all the technology she was dealing with, going through the vast amount of budget requiring her signature, seeing the list of employees, her connections, all of that was useless to cure her condition and to prevent the imminent failure of her father’s body. Her career amounted to nothing in that moment, helpless, with the power of a cork navigating a sea storm. She took a deep breath before entering the examination room as if trying to wipe out all of her feelings in one go. It took barely a few seconds for the deep, dark eyes of Mercy to see right through Velia’s turmoil. She never knew to what level the subject could delve into her soul, if what she could perceive was the pain and all the raw emotions going through or even if she was able to decipher more specific details. Mercy said the words of commiseration with a delicate tone of voice, yet firm enough to cut through Velia’s armour, telling her how powerful she had become. Since then, Velia backed off from the subject, delegating responsibilities to other colleagues. The fear of being emotionally exposed to another human being added to the possibility of involuntarily leaking the institute’s darker secrets, which forced her to keep her distance. Not only that, but many preventive measures against a possible uprising from Mercy were taken, some of them flirting with paranoia.

  When Mercy started losing control, many of those measures paid off as the staff was trained and ready to evacuate the whole floor instantly and also, they learnt to switch positions to other floors or even to other facilities. Such rotation of personnel made it difficult for the subject to control anyone in particular. Unfortunately for the team, Mercy was able to mess up with Gavin Mckenzie, a key member of the team who could not be completely trusted ever again while Mercy was alive as they were not sure what she planted in his mind. Velia asked for the camera footage of the incident and saw it over and over. There was a small bit when Mercy got close to Gavin and he whispered something to her. During the debriefing, he said he told her that the building was surrounded by intelligence officers ready to track and capture her. Velia was not convinced by the explanation and kept asking the sound engineers to get any clues about those whispers, which was impossible. The team of Doctors had no choice but to sedate Mercy completely and just when Velia thought everything was under control, Braith ran away from the institute. The only pairing between subjects allowed by her was paying off as Oliver (a.k.a. Taran) and Ciana made a good team. Each one was weak on their own but the feelings for each other made them even easier to predict and manipulate. In a matter of hours, they captured Braith although there was a pressing matter in the circumstances of his escape. The security team had found he was on Mercy’s floor, taking advantage of an episode between the guards. Apparently, they were fighting for no reason and Velia knew it was Mercy’s doing but she ignored her purpose until the sound engineer arrived. He was annoyed by the fact they couldn’t determine what Mercy and Gavin were whispering, so he requested someone who could lip-read. They could make out the movements of the lips via a reflection on a glass, flipping and enhancing the image. Gavin told Mercy that her only chance was to work with people like her. There were several in the building and they would be sympathetic to her cause. Velia figured out that Mercy was creating a distraction. When reviewing the security camera’s footage, they found Braith making his way in the building and stealing information from a laptop. They were working together but the type of data he gathered was unclear. It was amazing how they made contact and coordinated a whole operation. Mercy’s abilities had grown exponentially, to the point of having the whole board recommending her termination. This was against Dr Velia’s intentions so she managed to stall them with technicalities while increasing the dose to keep Mercy sedated. The development of Empathy was one of her great achievements and it would have been a disaster to terminate it just like that. There was a project she had designed to keep subjects like Mercy under control, but it remained unfinished due to budget and scheduling issues. Her plan was to stall them until the new facilities were ready but that would take too much time, so while figuring out a contingency plan, all hell broke loose. The one subject she thought she could control, Lark, had violated security protocols and somehow found out about Braith’s condition. The building was declared in emergency to neutralise Lark. She couldn’t help but wonder whether those two were communicating in the same way that Mercy and Braith did or perhaps she was the one causing the bridge between them. If that was the case, they were only scratching the surface of what they were capable of. No other subjects had shown signs of communication to that level, not even Ciana, who was the one with the most potential besides Mercy. The protocols were activated, mobilising the Royal Corps, Police and The Air Forces but Velia knew it would take more than guns and brute force to contain them. She tried to convince Lark to stop, only to find out he was able to tell if she was lying or not. His abilities had been triggered with no apparent exposure to binaural stimulation and the only strategy she played was to lock him up in a lab. Unfortunately, a power cut caused by Taran set Lark free to go after Braith and dosed him with strength from the chemical compound stolen from the lab. Little did she know that using Ciana and Taran was a terrible idea but her successful experience with them indicated that nothing bad could have come from them together. It was the same pairing who single-handedly tracked and captured Braith. This time, motivated by Lark or perhaps communicating with him at a different level, they turned against Velia and ran towards Mercy. By that time, she activated one of her many contingency protocols called RESTART. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to use it as running away from the institute was a foolish idea, especially with a heavily sedated Mercy. Again, they surprised V
elia when Taran used a controlled discharge to bring her back from the sedatives. What started as Lark rebelling against the rules had escalated to the five strongest subjects versus Velia. When they reached the rooftop, the RESTART protocol arrived. It was a set of tools to truly counter the valuable subjects. A specially designed gun with gas pellets aimed to neutralise Braith’s enhancements. Along with the tools, there was also a sound machine which was the equivalent for Lark, once activated, it would emit a frequency created to temporarily decrease his enhancement. Both Braith and Lark saw their abilities disappear in a matter of seconds after the measures were taken. As their stimulation took place in the hearing and smelling sensors, it was through those sensors that an anti-stimulant was to be effective. She had nothing for Ciana or Mercy yet and Taran’s device was still in the works. However, he was more than depleted as in such a short span of time, he had been creating several electrical discharges. However, Velia’s Fab Five strike again, this time achieving the impossible in a spectacular display of power and skills. They were far from defeated, knocking down helicopters and creating a big electric storm to knock down every soldier. Suddenly, all the forces surrounding the building and every aircraft approaching just turned back to where they all came from as if receiving instructions from a higher commander. No doubt that Mercy somehow got hold of all of them. Velia would die to know what was happening on the other side of the rooftop. Mercy was more powerful than she expected and her loss would be catastrophic for the institute. Velia did not hesitate to take a gun from an unconscious agent and started to advance towards the subjects who were planning their escape in a helicopter. Luckily for her, Mercy was the last one to get on board and before she did it, Velia grabbed her, pointing the gun to her temple. She had never operated a gun and had no intention to use it, but Mercy did not leave her much choice. Frozen by a sudden panic, she could not move, thus letting her prisoner loose. Mercy turned around and looked at her in the eyes.