Aaron held up the laser needle with his left hand. “What’s this?”
There was a slight pause before Dr. Moore answered, “It’s a vaccination. We’re closing the lab, so we got to transfer you.”
“Vaccination,” Aaron repeated, considering. “The problem is that I got all mine in the army. Here, why don’t you take mine?” He reached forward with his left hand and placed the laser needle against the doctor’s shoulder.
“No!” Dr. Moore screamed, sliding downward away from the needle.
Pulling the needle a little ways away from the doctor, Aaron leaned closer. “Tell me what’s in the needle and what’s going on.”
Looking terrified and breathing hard, Dr. Moore looked from the needle to Aaron’s face and then back to the needle. “It’s bascella.”
“Bascella?” Aaron repeated thoughtfully. Bascella was a poison. If he had been injected with it, then he would have been dead within five minutes, but it wouldn’t have been a painless death by any means. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
Dr. Moore swallowed hard. “The war’s over. You can’t change that and if what we did here became widely known, then we would have been hunted down like animals.”
“Let me see if I have this straight,” Aaron said quietly. “You ask us to volunteer, then you experiment on us, and then you try to kill us to keep what you did here a secret. Is that about right?”
Dr. Moore recoiled. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”
Aaron took a deep breath and smiled—it wasn’t a friendly smile. “The thought has crossed my mind, but perhaps I’ll show you the mercy that you refused to give me.”
Hope bloomed in the eyes of the doctor. “What do you want?’
“Tell me everything, and I do mean everything.”
Still cringing, terror clearly showing in his eyes, Dr. Moore agreed. “Okay, but where should I start?”
“Why did you pick us? Why were we asked to volunteer?” It was a thought that had bothered him. He was in the military and in good shape, as were all the other volunteers, but how did they single him out?
The doctor blinked; apparently that wasn’t the question he had been expecting. He glanced at the shock stick and immediately started talking. “Every one of you had some empathic talent. Most of you probably didn’t even know, but the army entrance tests proved it.”
“We’re empaths?” Aaron asked, surprised. Empaths were able to sense other people’s emotions and it was rather uncommon, but could it be true? He had never suspected anything of the like before—surely he would have had a suspicion.
Dr. Moore nodded his head fervently. “Yes. We insisted on that as a prerequisite for our tests.”
“Why?” Aaron demanded. Something in his tone must have shown his anger, because the little man flinched as if hit.
“Because, these experiments have been tried before—with horrible results.”
Aaron leaned closer, his teeth pulled back in a furious snarl. “So why try them again?” He shouted the words, each word making the doctor sink more into himself.
“We hoped that the empathic talent would shield you from the possible side affects.” He wouldn’t even look at Aaron as he spoke but continued to stare at the floor.
The words blunted Aaron’s rage, catching him off guard. “Shield us? How?”
Moore looked up. “There is a small area of the brain that is more developed in empaths and Dr. Barron suspected that it would be sufficient to keep the subjects sane. You were already soldiers, with the new talents the procedures gave you, you would have been an unstoppable special forces unit.”
“And? Did it work? Did it protect us from the side affects?”
Dr. Moore shrugged. “Don’t know. It can take years, sometimes decades for the side affects to manifest themselves.”
“But you’re not willing to wait and see, are you?”
Moore shook his head, “Couldn’t risk it. If even a hint of these experiments got out, then this whole section of space would be quarantined, millions of people would die. It would be a disaster.”
“Tell me,” Aaron said quietly, “what did you do to me?”
Dr. Moore hesitated, looking up at Aaron. He made eye contact and then lowered his eyes quickly.
“Tell me!” Aaron repeated, taking a step forward. At that moment, he would gladly have beaten the doctor to death.
Moore flinched backwards, cowering against the wall. “All right! All right! I’ll tell you.”
Aaron paused, glaring down at the doctor, who was busy trying to sink into the wall.
“We,” Dr. Moore hesitated and started again, “we made you into a cyborg.”
There it was; the words that Aaron had feared and dreaded. They had went and made him into a monster. A cyborg! Cyborgs started out as normal humans but then they were altered with robotic enhancements.
Cyborgs weren’t new. It had been tried before and with disastrous results. Before these dark times that they lived in, there had been an enormous empire that had spread across the known galaxy. The Akkadian dynasty had ruled for over three thousand years before collapsing. Since then the populated words had gone through a constant state of war. Smaller systems were conquered, absorbed into larger groupings, which ultimately broke apart soon enough; either due to civil war or war with their neighbors. One law had remained constant, inviolate; cybernetic experiments were not to be attempted. There was good reason for this. Before the fall of the Akkadian dynasty, cyborgs had been created and for a time things seemed to go well, until the cyborgs went psychotically insane. The crimes they committed were horrific and unimaginable. Since then, no civilization had attempted the creation of a cyborg, well, none that Aaron knew of anyway, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Any civilization that tried to create a cyborg would be isolated and attacked, even by its most ardent allies. Only rudimentary cyborgs were allowed—artificial limbs, pacemakers, and the like.
Aaron took several deep breaths, trying to remain calm. “You cut into my brain and connected a goddamn computer?”
“No! We tried an innovative method,” Dr. Moore said quickly.
His words again caused Aaron to hesitate. His understanding of cybernetics was not extensive, but he thought it involved microscopic surgery to connect electronics to a person’s brain. “Explain,” he said simply.
It took a moment for Dr. Moore to find his voice again. “Dr. Barron took a basic flu virus and altered its DNA. He made it into an organic program and then he injected it into your body.”
“Program?”
“Yes, he basically put the galactic encyclopedia into the code. If things go as expected, the program should interact with your brain and supply you with information. You’ll have an inexhaustible supply of knowledge in your head. You’re not a cyborg in the traditional sense of the word; there’s nothing robotic in you. The computer that interacts with your brain is an organic one.”
“What else? What else does this program do? Will it control me or cause me to do things that I won’t like?”
Dr. Moore shook his head frantically. “I swear I don’t know. I got the feeling that it was revolutionary and not designed to control you. I believe there simply wasn’t time to build in the necessary safeguards. Our need was simply too urgent.”
Aaron was silent for a moment, considering how best to ask his next question. “What would have happened if we had been able to turn the tide of the war? If the Commonwealth had won, would we still have been executed?”
Dr. Moore didn’t answer, not with words anyway but his dropping of his eyes to the floor was answer enough.
A feeling of depression settled on Aaron’s shoulders. He had been used by his own country and the government had planned to simply discard him and the other volunteers when they were done with them.
He took a deep breath, steadying himself. “How many of us are still alive?” His words were calm but there was a fierceness in the quiet tone that seemed to scare Dr. Moore even worse than the sho
uting.
“I don’t know,” the doctor answered, shaking his head. “I,” he paused before continuing in a rush, “I was sent to handle your squad and three others.”
The volunteers had been divided into squads, each of five members. They had been grouped together based on their abilities and had been training together for nearly six months. “How many of the twenty that you were sent to kill are still alive?”
Moore swallowed hard. “Just your squad.”
Aaron stared down at the cringing doctor, forcing himself to resist the urge to kill the man right out. “Get up,” he motioned towards the door, “open it.”
Dr. Moore climbed slowly to his feet, a little unsteady. He reached out a shaking hand to the keypad.
Aaron stepped up close. “Don’t do anything stupid; you’ll be dead before you hit the floor.”
The doctor nodded and punched in a six digit code causing the door to slide open. Aaron followed him closely into the next room.
When they had been assigned to squads, their living arrangements were changed, grouping squad members together. Aaron’s door opened into a common living area that had six other doors besides Aaron’s. One of those doors led to the hallway and out of their living area, a second door led to a shared shower, and the other four doors opened into cells just like Aaron’s. His four fellow squad members should be behind those doors. For the doctor’s sake, his fellow squad members had better be alive.
He pointed to the nearest door. “Open it.”
The doctor hesitated. “You can’t get away. There is no escape.”
Aaron leaned close. “You had better hope you’re mistaken, because if we die, then you die with us.”
Sweating now, Moore moved up close to the second door. In moments, the door slid open and a woman stood just inside the door. Her arms were crossed and her face was an angry mask. As soon as the door opened, she stepped through and slapped Dr. Moore across the face.
The doctor stepped backwards, nearly falling over. Aaron quickly interjected himself between the two. “At ease, Major.”
Major Susan Ingram turned her glare on him. She was of average height and slim, but in good physical shape. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore no makeup. She wouldn’t be called attractive, although she wasn’t un-attractive either. She was plain and didn’t seem to try overly hard. Her nose was perhaps a little too wide for her face and her hair pulled back tight gave her a masculine look. “They were going to kill us,” she said simply.
Aaron nodded. “I know.” He held up the laser needle, showing it to her. “Poison,” he said simply. He wasn’t surprised that Susan already knew about the government’s plan for them, no matter what talent she had come in with, the experiments had turned her into a telepath. Telepaths were far more rare than empaths. While empaths could sense a person’s emotions, a telepath could actually hear the thoughts of other people. “How long have you known?”
“Almost a day,” she replied simply. “I could sense the feelings of rage and betrayal as they started killing the patients.”
Aaron didn’t respond right away; he could only imagine the feeling of helplessness that must have threatened to overwhelm Susan as she sensed what was going on around them. He had only suspected that something horrible was going on, but she had actually known.
“I’ll be okay,” Susan said, as if reading his thoughts. She was staring at him intently.
“Come on then,” Aaron said, giving her a small smile. “Let’s see if we can get away from this awful place.” He hadn’t known Susan before they had been assigned to this squad, but she had been easy to like. She was cool, unemotional, and very dedicated to her job. She was also his second-in-command.
“And if we can’t get away,” Susan asked, continuing to watch him.
He probably didn’t need to verbalize his answer to a telepath, but he did anyway. “Then we die trying.”
They moved on, opening the other doors. First out was Captain Russell Hicks. He was in his mid-thirties and in excellent physical conditioning. His brown hair was cut short as befitting a military man and there was a touch of grey scattered through the sides above the ears. He had been a weapons officer in the army and followed orders well during their training together. The experimentation had given him telekinetic abilities, allowing him to move physical objects just by thinking about it. He was not a telepath and the questions began almost as soon as the door opened. “What the fuck is going on?” He opened his mouth to speak again but froze at the sight of Dr. Moore cringing back behind Aaron.
Aaron held up a hand. “In a minute. Let’s get the rest out before answering questions.”
Next up was Lieutenant Jessica Lyter. She was a young woman in her early thirties, with shoulder length blond hair and a thin face. She was somewhat pretty but there was a bookish look about her. In her prior life, she had been a ship’s medical doctor.
Aaron had been concerned with Jessica’s initial assignment to his group and the truth be told, he still was concerned. Most members of the military tended to be pretty good at following orders, but in his experience, if there was going to be someone resisting orders, it would be a member of the medical staff.
Her newly found talent had no name that Aaron was aware of; he called her an illusionist. Somehow, she was able to project sights and sounds to those around her. She was able to cause distractions at will, truly a great skill to have on a team.
The last team member to be released was Lieutenant Adam Campbell. He was the youngest of the group, just twenty-eight years old. He also was the cockiest. In Aaron’s experience, pilots, especially young ones, were always cocky. He was close to average height, maybe five foot ten, and in good shape; women tended to find him attractive. The experiments had given him heightened reflexes and senses. His reflexes bordered on being precognitive. His brown hair was cut short and he too wore an angry look. “Bout fucking time.” His eyes quickly scanned the group coming to rest on the cowering doctor. His face seemed to lose some of its anger. “What’s going on?”
“Good fucking question.” Russell was eyeing the doctor with obvious distaste.
“They were going to kill us,” Aaron said simply—no reason to sugarcoat it for them.
“What?” Jessica burst out, her brow pulled down in confusion “That can’t be right. Why would they kill us?”
Aaron pushed the doctor into the middle of the group. “Start talking.”
Hesitantly at first, the doctor repeated everything he had already told Aaron. Russell and Adam both seemed to get angrier with every word, but Jessica simply looked disbelieving.
“I can’t believe that the Commonwealth would do such a thing. Surely they wouldn’t kill us. We’re their soldiers.”
Russell glanced at Susan. After a moment, she nodded and he turned his attention back to the cowering doctor. “It’s simple. I say we give him the shot of poison that he intended for us.”
Adam looked agreeable, Jessica looked troubled, and Susan looked like she could care less what happened.
“No,” Aaron said simply. “If he helps us escape, then we’ll let him live.”
“What can I do?” Dr. Moore asked quietly.
Chapter 2
“What’s the personnel situation on the station?” Aaron asked. He pointed at Susan, “Remember, she’ll know if you lie.”
“Most have already been removed. There’s only a skeleton crew left.” Dr. Moore answered quickly, his eyes darting around at the angry faces staring at him.
“Are the cameras being watched?” Russell asked.
“Yes, but only in the corridors around the patient quarters.”
Made sense. They wanted to make sure that none of them escaped. Aaron glanced at Jessica. “Can you mask us? Project an image of an empty hallway?”
Jessica nodded. “Yes, but not for long.”
“Okay,” Aaron said after a moment, “then we run.” He looked at Dr. Moore. “If you lag behind–” He didn’t finish the sent
ence, instead he hefted the shock stick and pointed to the doctor’s head.
Dr. Moore went white. “I’ll go as fast as I can.”
Aaron tossed the shock stick to Adam. “Stay with him, only use the stick if he doesn’t cooperate.”
Adam caught the stick out of the air and grinned. If possible, the doctor went even paler.
“Where are we running to?” Russell asked, looking Aaron’s way.
“Power plant,” Aaron answered.
This station, where the medical experiments and subsequent training had taken place, was on a small barren moon that orbited a gas giant planet. The moon had no atmosphere and was completely inhospitable; it probably had been an asteroid that the gas giant’s gravity had captured. There weren’t any habitable planets in this system and it was removed from trade routes. In other words, it was an out of the way system and the perfect place to go unnoticed. The station had been built by the military to withstand an attack and even though it was a small station, it had been given a rather oversized power plant. The plant generated the electricity for the station, but more importantly, it powered the shields and tractor beams. If they were going to get away, then they had to find a way to shut down the tractor beams.
“Does the station have any weapon systems?” Russell asked, scowling at the doctor.
Dr. Moore shook his head quickly. “No. We’re a research facility. We rely on the shielding to protect us long enough for reinforcements to reach us.”
That made sense too. If someone attacked, then the Commonwealth could rightly claim that an unarmed research outpost had been attacked—that would look bad for the attackers. On the other hand, with the shielding available they should be able to outlast all but the most determined of attacks.
Aaron motioned to Susan. “You’re in the front with me. Let me know if you sense anyone.” Being a telepath, she would be able to tell if there was anyone in their vicinity before they ran up on them. He glanced around at his squad, pleased to see determination on their faces. Dr. Moore simply looked terrified. “Ready?”
“Yes, sir,” they answered as one.
A Gathering of Armies Page 34