Mission: Lights of Langrenus

by V. A. Jeffrey

  “What do those failed experiments look like?” He asked fearfully. My face twisted in disgust.

  “You don't want to know.”

  If I didn't find a way to bust us out of here, we'd be going the way of the other failed experimental victims, human and alien.

  “You know, I sensed something was wrong the moment I got here, but I'd already invested so much time in getting hired, in getting this job. And the money seemed so phenomenal. I went ahead and ignored that little voice in the back of my mind, you know?”

  “I know. I've done that plenty of times. Money can do that to you,” I said, that sinking feeling washing over me again. I thought I might have been hired by The Boss because of that very quality. I wondered how long my luck would run. As if in answer, my thoughts were interrupted by the coming of several footsteps. A door slid open and in walked three people, human scientists, by the cursory glance of them. One of them had a shock of yellowish-white hair, wiry and hard looking that stood on his head as if he were the bride of Frankenstein's son. His eyes were unnaturally wide and large and so was his mouth. In fact, he had a frozen, crazed expression on his face. The other man beside me moaned and wailed in terror. I fought the fear rising in my own chest. The odd looking man, or rather, crazed man, drew out a slim remote control and touched it. The energy bands around my wrists buzzed and crackled, sending blinding pain throughout my body. The other man screamed out in terror. I gritted my teeth but lost control elsewhere and urinated on myself. When he was done I found him standing over both our stretchers, with that unnerving grin. There were two others I could only guess as assistants, standing silently behind them, dressed in white, with white hair caps and face masks hiding their faces. The man chuckled and just when I thought no one's smile could get any more maniacal, his grin got broader. It was a chilling look.

  “There, there now, Jason.”

  “Justin,” the man whimpered. The other man just laughed and patted him on the head. He looked at the puddle around the floor that I'd just made and made a tsking sound, shaking his head in irritation.

  “Such filth, such useless effluvia!” His voice was unnaturally high-pitched, like a mosquito whine. "Ruthie, get one of the mechs to clean this up!" He called to one of his assistants. So it was him! He bent over me, leaning in close so that I thought I was staring into a fun house mirror.

  “I forgive your trespass in my pristine lab rooms. Her Majesty will forgive you too, once you have transformed into the next phase of human existence. Frankly, if it were left up to me, I would require you to tell me how you got in here. However, she seems to be quite taken with you. You and he will hopefully be the first to transform into the Fiorjah. You, especially she wants to try the serum on. I wonder. You haven't been prepared by the Erautian growth hormones yet.”

  “Growth hormones?” So that's what they were.

  “The red pills, sir. It will be interesting to see how they react in your body. Each human and alien body is different. Some have a stronger constitution than others. You see, one of the interesting side effects of the drug is excessive blood thinning. Some people bleed and bleed and bleed. From every orifice and pore. Such a mess they make! I wonder what effect the pills will have upon you?”

  “You can't make me take them!”

  “Don't be stupid. Of course I can,” he said. He stopped smiling suddenly, his expression darkening. “She promised it would be me to be the first one for the serum.” His voice took on a petulant tone.

  “She wants to make sure all will work before you are injected with it, sir,” said one of the assistants.

  “I know that!” He snapped, making me flinch. He appraised me again.

  “Ah. A nervous one,” he murmured. “suggests a sensitive nervous system. Experimentation upon such people is quite rewarding.” Then he straightened up and lifted his arms as if looking at the heavens. “I will continue the cleansing process, to clean out all the excrement, bile and filth before I begin my work on you two. Humans must transform, we must. . .evolve. This is the way forward, our next step in existence. Not in ships of metal, polluting other planets and polluting space, but as beings of fire and light who travel in bio-genetic ships. She has given me a glimpse of the glorious past of the Fiorjah race, and that past will be our future. The first successful trans-species project ever conceived! Into a race of Fiorjah!”

  “But you've failed with the others. I saw them out there. They're dead.”

  “Yes, well, when one wants to achieve greatness, failures are necessary. You cannot get away from it, but each experiment in those tanks brought me closer to the truth of genetic splicing and manipulation. Nothing like this has been done before.” He seemed to be talking to someone else, in reverent awe.

  “Without anyone's consent? Just grabbing people up and bringing them in here for your experiments? I wonder how cruelly they suffered before they died!” He suddenly snapped out of his trance and gave me a dangerously unhappy look, a frown which was just as unsettling as his smile.

  “You'll find out soon enough. Don't lecture me. Humans are incapable of making change without being forced to for their own good! That has been proven in history time and again. Her Majesty has seen this to be the case as well.” He softened his expression. “Believe me when I say it's for our own good. All of us, me as well, not just you and everyone else. All of us must bow to the brilliance of Her Majesty.”

  “What if Her Majesty simply wants to see the destruction of the human population?” I countered.

  “Why would she want that?”

  “I don't know. How do you know she's telling you the truth? How do you know you haven't been duped?” He became agitated at this.

  “Don't you dare speak against her in that manner! I know because I know! I have worked for her for years, perfecting my experiments for her vision. I don't need to be questioned! Her vision is my vision and it will be everyone's future!” He lowered his voice again from shrill, high-strung baying to more soothing tones. “I know you are frightened. Don't be. I have all that I need to help humans and aliens make the transformation. All of us. The work is now complete and the final phase shall begin in a few weeks. Starting with you two. Do not fear, for you will be glorious.”

  “No, it won't be glorious! You're making a terrible mistake and you're torturing people for an insane vision that will never come true!” He smiled.

  “You will thank me later when you are a beautiful Fiorjah, traveling the galaxy with the help of the type of quantum and biological technologies that humans have barely dreamed of.” He turned sharply to his assistants.

  “The loudmouth. Get him ready first. And clean this urine up, Ruthie!” He said, pointing to the puddle. He went to a wall in the room and dialed something on a keypad. One of the assistants dutifully put on clean rubber gloves, gathered some clean towels and wiped up the mess.

  The roof suddenly opened up and soon I saw a vista of a starry sky. A tiny meteorite streaked across. And it looked like the entire sky had come down to embrace me with its cold, black emptiness.

  “Behold the true home of the humans of the future!” He left the lab room and I saw them bring up a large hover table full of sharp, frightening looking medical utensils and liquids in clear vials. One of them took up a vial with a luminous looking liquid while the other washed her hands after taking off her rubber gloves. She put on a brand new pair, snapping them smartly and came to stand next to her partner.

  “What is that?” I asked, feeling myself hyper-ventilate.

  “Calm yourself,” said the assistant coolly. “This will not hurt.”

  “Look, don't so this! It's not going to work! This is wrong!” The assistants prepped me for the experiment without another word.

  “I thought you said you could get us out of here!” Said Justin in rising terror. The assistants went about their tasks like efficient automatons. In fact, I wondered if they were very sophisticated androids like Will. One of them rubbed my left arm down with alcohol. Then they gave me a
full body scan with a small hand scanner. While the other one took up a long syringe and filled it with the luminescent, gaseous looking liquid in the vial.

  “Wait! Wait!” I cried in a panic. One of them held me still while the other placed the syringe against my arm. The short, thick needle shot out and injected this serum into my arm. A fat stream of blood rolled down my arm. My whole body felt as if it had been set on fire. I screamed out as pain tore through me like hidden land mines detonating throughout my body. The two assistants merely watched me without any discernible emotion, holding me down as my body shook involuntarily and then, again, I lost consciousness.

  11

  When I came to, again, I had the sensation that I was floating in space and a spooky feeling that someone was watching me. Specifically the being that was suffering from insanity. I guess anyone would if they were the last of their kind and had been forced to live alone for countless aeons. But this plan had to destroyed.

  As my thoughts became more organized I realized that I was in a room and the room was nearly black except the sky vista of stars above me. I was in the same room as before, but it looked different. Or maybe it was my imagination? I thought that it seemed bare now, as if everything had been emptied out of it. My body felt different too. I felt an intense tingling sensation throughout it. The serum must have been doing its work. What sort of work, I had no idea and I was afraid. I didn't want to be anything other than what I was. I didn't want to “evolve”.

  “Do you feel changed?” Came a disembodied voice out of the darkness. I jumped at the sound.

  “My, what a nervous creature you are.” My eyes searched the darkness for the source. I saw another meteorite streak across the sky.

  “Who are you?” I whispered.

  “You've forgotten me already?” I realized that it was the Fiorjah. “You don't have to whisper. We are alone.”

  “I feel. . .sick. What's happening to me?”

  “The change. I am raising you up. To be my companion. Dr. Dorn would have been in your place, but his mind is. . .unstable. I doubt he will survive the transformation when his time comes to take the serum. You are new here. Fresh blood. I sense your mind is stable. Daring. You found me and came here, unbidden, to this hidden place. You interest me in a way he never will.”

  “You detected all that?”

  “I did. I also detected that you have a low ranging ability to do the same thing, to sense things others can't, though you do not use it to full advantage. I can help you,” she said. I chafed against my bonds.

  “Who are you, really?” I felt the room grow warmer, the air grew sweeter.

  “I told you. I am the last one of my kind. I am Tathiea of the Tabriok. Before the Dusk, I was once a princess of my people. My mother was a queen. I came from an empire that spanned the great Ratha Desert. I was betrothed to a prince of the people of the cold fires, the Fiorjah that lived in the vast forests of Eraut that lay within the Ring of Cold Fires.”

  “Ring of Cold Fires?”

  “The great mountains that ringed the northern and southern hemispheres and the world's forests. The lands where snow fell. He was to be my prince-consort. But it was all so long ago. Lost in ancient memory. The wars robbed me of my betrothed, my would-be companion. You are somewhat like him. Your soul and essence, that is.” I was highly intrigued now. A connection was being forged. I felt that mental pull from her.

  “Come with me and I will show you the many wondrous things that I've seen.”

  “How?”

  “My memories I can share. I can show you the past and a possible future.”

  “No one knows the future.”

  “Possible future.”

  “I thought Dr. Dorn was your favorite?”

  “As I've said before, he is not as desirable to me any longer. Oh, make no mistake. I still find him extremely useful but in any other way, he bores me. You do not. Yet. You have been filled with my essence. I have given you a gift.”

  “The serum?”

  “Yes. You have survived, I noticed. Many who were given only a synthetic version, while they changed physically, their minds could not comprehend the change and their bodies couldn't tolerate the serum. They eventually died. But you have been given the full, pure measure of it and still you survive, intact.”

  “I've got good genes, I guess. Good constitution.”

  “Good genes indeed. I hope you realize how very important that word is. Everything hinges on it. Your entire race. But more on that later. Let me take you on a journey. What is your name?”

  “Robert.”

  “Robert. I will show you some of what I have seen in my travels.” The dome went blank and then images flooded the screen of the dome. I saw Eraut, its little moons, and its beautiful ice rings.

  “This is Eraut before its fall. Near pristine in its beauty.”

  “I can see it,” I said in quiet wonder.

  “Isn't it beautiful?” The scene changed and I was now in a forest filled with towering trees and exotic plant life and animals and we passed by a great waterfall and a rushing river. Then we soared over red and purple deserts. Then there was a war that I saw unfold before me. It started in what looked like a massive mountaintop citadel, between Glia and Miku. This war spilled out over half of the planet until there was nothing I saw but death and destruction the world over. “This was the great war that consumed everyone after my race disappeared from the world. The great families of the world vied for power over the grand civilizations we had helped them create.”

  “The Kriani Wars?” I recalled what my mysterious rescuer on Mars had said.

  “You know of the Kriani Wars?”

  “I heard many things while I was on Mars.”

  “Yes. The Kriani Wars. They consumed the vast majority of the Fiorjah, destroyed us. Our ancestral houses and realms fell into ruins. After those devastating planetary-wide wars rose the Nine Princes of the Realm. It was the nine who brought order to that terrible chaos.”

  “But at what price?” I murmured. “And how could they have destroyed the Fiorjah?”

  “Of how they did it I will not speak. For it is unspeakable. It is like a child rising up in rebellion against his forebears. An abomination. As for the Nine and their order, they have created, what price would you have them continue to pay? Continued chaos? War? There would be nothing left without a strong arm.”

  “But how long ago was this? Surely, they don't need such domination from a powerful government forever?”

  “You do not know the Erautians. Strange, considering they are not that far removed from humans in their thinking. They are chaotic and wild blooded as a rule. Lift the lid off their base impulses and you will never regain it back. The Nine had the wisdom of the Fiorjah within them as well as our bloodlines. That is why they brought salvation to the whole world. For a time.”

  “Surely though, some are wanting something different. It's a different age now. The people want change. Not all want to continue under totalitarian rule.”

  “A nice hope but futile and foolish. In any case, one day they will all become like me. I will help them with the transition as well as the human race. Humans as a species will become greater than they ever have been. That is my new found purpose after all my travels and ponderings over the ages. You, Robert, will be my crowning achievement. Great things we will do, you and I. We can rule together, rule all of humanity and all Erautians.”

  “Why rule? Why that word?” I asked. She laughed.

  “Do you fear power? Does it make you uncomfortable?”

  “A little. I don't need or want to rule over anyone. I see it only destroys.”

  “It also builds up and creates. Power is the greatest creative force in the universe. It turns upon the great, eternal cycle we all live in. This quirk of abhorring power makes you different from most humans and Erautians. Don't worry. You will see the wisdom in it, in time. You will not be able to help it now that you have the essence of the Fiorjah within you. Right now you are de
eply flawed, weak, made of flesh and blood. With the serum being perfected and replicated by my scientists and given to more and more human beings, you will see things differently. Your kind will become strong. You will see the universe the way I see it. The way it was meant to be seen.” She was hell bent on this and I would not be able to change her mind. So I went in a different direction.

  “What actually happened to your people? What happened during the Dusk?” I asked slowly. There was a long silence.

  “It was the beginning of the end for us. The lower beings called that period the Kriani Wars. For us, it was the Dusk, a long, slow descent into extinction. In its beginning, we did not recognize it as such. We did not see it coming and it began with a whisper. There was one, one of the Fiorjah forebears of the Nine and of one of the great families, who was in a power struggle with the imperial family, the greatest dynastic family Eraut had ever known. He thought that his people had become too decadent, lazy, corrupt and immoral under the ruling imperial family. They had ruled Eraut for over one thousand years and he wished to end their rule once and for all. He devised two things; a device, a weapon to destroy us and a defense of that weapon for his own use to protect himself. He gave this weapon to our lesser enemies. He had found a way to destroy us all, his own people. Before him, we were the most powerful beings of Eraut and rightly worshiped as gods. He brought the ruin of Eraut and he took a wife of one of the lesser beings, one of their noble houses, and formed an intermediate race of Erautians, of which the Nine and their families trace their lineage. He wanted his line to be the only one of the Fiorjah noble families to survive. He sought all their worship for himself. Then came the Kriani Wars. Very few of us escaped alive. Only my mother and I escaped. My mother died of a broken heart after many years of no comfort and thinking upon her destroyed ancestral home, her glorious lineage, her people. My betrothed was assassinated and they then sought my mother and me. Our family, all branches of the Tabriok family, was massacred. I can still hear the screams and cries. See the smoke ascending the skies. Yet, the lesser beings dominated the same way we did. They began to destroy themselves after they destroyed us, their gods!” The room grew hotter.