by Beca Lewis
The Experiment
Beca Lewis
Copyright © 2019 Beca Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Published by:
Perception Publishing
https://perceptionpublishing.com
This book is a work of fiction. All characters in this book are fictional. However, as a writer, I have, of course, made some of the book’s characters composites of people I have met or known.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
One
The brothers surveyed the land and nodded in approval. Both brothers were long and lean, one fair, one dark. Although they had traveled across thousands of years, and through countless universes, there were no traces of that on their faces.
“This might be one of the most beautiful planets that we have seen so far,” brother One said.
Without waiting for his brother’s response, One spread out his long arms, leaned back into the tall grasses, and breathed in the air sweetened by the wildflowers growing in the meadow.
The brothers had circled the planet for a few weeks before choosing this place to land. They had seen the broad swaths of forest and the massive expansion of crystal blue oceans. They had skimmed over mountains watching the animals scatter below, and the pines sway in the wind.
They had hovered over the massive icebergs that covered much of the land and finally chosen this spot to set their craft down. Their long legs had stepped out onto many planets, but this was the first one that had made them pause this long to marvel in its beauty.
Planets didn’t have to be beautiful to be chosen for their experiments. Each world only had to have all the basic necessities for supporting the life forms they would bring to seed it. Some beings would survive, and some wouldn’t. That was part of the fun—part of the test.
A planet that would support the two of them, now that was rare. In fact, in all the time the two brothers had been traveling, they had only found three others. But none as beautiful as this one. Or a planet that reminded them so much of home.
Their home planet had been destroyed thousands of years before. Those that had the resources managed to leave before its destruction and the brothers were two of those lucky few. They had been traveling ever since.
At first, it had been fun, an adventure. Then the brothers got bored, so they came up with ways to amuse themselves. It wasn’t easy. However, they managed to find a few things that entertained them. Eventually, they found the game they liked the best; playing with the evolution of the planets they found. The game involved adding a variable to the planet that wasn’t there before.
The problem was, you can only do that kind of thing for so long before boredom sets in again. There was only so much the brothers could do to mess with things.
So it seemed to One that their landing on this planet was a chance to do something else, because of all the worlds they had seen, this was the first one that reminded them of home.
It was almost as if they had circled back through time to find it. Both of the brothers were aware that that possibility existed, but it didn’t really matter. In the end, the planet they knew of as home had been destroyed. This planet was new. Perhaps millions of years would pass before it would face destruction.
“It’s so beautiful here,” Two whispered. “Aren’t you tired of traveling? We’ve seen everything. Why not stay? It reminds me of home.”
One let out an uncharacteristic sigh. Even at his most bored, One had contained himself. He thought it was his duty being the older of the two of them. Soldier on. Find a reason for continuing. He was the one who had come up with the idea of testing things, for fun, sport, and to give their superior intellect something to focus upon. Otherwise, they might have gone mad, just the two of them. One thought the tests had been an elegant solution.
Besides their experiments on planets, they also picked up samples of other species and did tests with them, too. Sometimes it was physical testing. But over the years they had discovered that psychological tests were more fun for them. That’s when they had the idea that they had been experimenting with for the past thousand years or so.
Now they were both bored with that game. Perhaps on this planet, the brothers could find some contentment. Maybe even experience joy, something they had lost the moment their world disappeared through the window of their spaceship.
“Instead of experimenting?” One asked.
“Yes. Perhaps we could be the experiment instead.”
One shook his head. “No. What about all that the other planets we have run tests on? Don’t you want to see what became of them? What was the point of it if we don’t go back and look?”
Two plopped down on a nearby stone. “But, this one is so beautiful. I’m tired. Can’t we just let it be?”
One looked fondly at his younger brother. At least as fondly as one could look at a brother that you have spent thousands of years traveling with. Two was right. What did all those trips through those countless galaxies mean when they were still bored? Perhaps staying on this planet would change all that.
Still, his researcher’s mind couldn’t let it go. They had data to collect.
“What about this?” One said. “We’ll go back and check on what we’ve done. Then we’ll return here, and if our experiments haven’t destroyed this planet, we’ll stay.
Two sat up from where he was lying in the meadow, to see if his brother was telling the truth.
“You agree to this?” he asked.
One nodded and put his hand over his heart to seal his promise. “Let’s hope that it’s still here when we come back. But first, we have an experiment to begin. Shall we bring the test subjects down? Enough for two dimensions. Or do you want to do more?
Two sighed again and hoped against hope that the sky would be this blue the next time they came by. Maybe if they only experimented with two dimensions, it would remain this beautiful in at least one of them. Or there might be another dimension on this planet that would stay pristine if they didn’t experiment with it.
“Two dimensions. That’s enough.”
“Done.” One answered.
One reached down and helped his brother to stand. Together they gazed out over the meadow and the forest beyond. This would be the last time they would be the only two beings on the planet.
“What shall we call this one? I’m tired of just numbering them.”
“So, you don’t want to make this be planet 999?” One laughed.
“I’m serious, One. Why don’t we call it what we called our home planet? It’s gone now. No one will know but us.”
“Gaia it is,” One answered. He agreed with his brother. This planet might make a beautiful home for the two of them. Maybe they should add something into what they were doing that would make it more likely that at least one of the dimensions would survive. If so, what would it be?
Two
Many, many, thousands of years later …
Suzanne watched her Earth father, Earl, writing at his desk, preparing for their last meeting. Their mission was over. At least it was for everyone else. She had more to do.
The team that would be taking over would be arriving soon. It had taken many years to pull the new grou
p together, and now that they were ready, Suzanne’s team could move on. This new team would be their replacement.
Helping her prepare for the meeting was her best friend. Abigail had come to stay in the house in the mountains years before when her husband Tom had died. Well, not died in the traditional sense. He had chosen instead to join the other members of the Forest Circle who lived outside of this Earth dimension.
Suzanne wondered if she would ever have a husband in the way other people did. She didn’t think so. It would take an extraordinary person to be able to deal with what she was. Not just human. Something else which would never fit in the Earth Realm. It barely fit in the Erda Realm.
The other members of the Forest Circle had managed to maintain a life in the Earth dimension that looked like everyone else’s who lived here. Perhaps it was because they had stayed here, while she was always traveling between the two.
Suzanne shook those thoughts off. It was the least of her worries. Too much needed to be taken care of before Earl and Ariel could leave the Earth Realm and return to Erda as themselves.
Although Earl and Ariel were her parents in the Earth Realm, they were not her parents in the other dimension that she lived in, actually the dimension that was her true home. The Erda dimension. Still, she called them mom and dad in both because she loved them as if they were.
The rest of her Forest Circle team would be waiting outside for the three of them. They had named themselves the Forest Circle for two reasons. The obvious one was because they lived surrounded by forests in the northwestern part of what Earth people called the United States.
But there was another reason. The dimension that Suzanne, Earl, and Ariel had come from overflowed with forests. It was the trees that supplied everything that was needed in that dimension. They did here too, but it wasn’t quite the same.
The Earth Realm was too practical, or impractical depending on whom you asked. The people of Earth worked so hard to make a living they often forgot to live.
In spite of that, Suzanne loved the people of Earth. And in spite of how difficult it was for her to live in two places, she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
But times were changing. All the members of the Forest Circle were ready to leave the Earth dimension. But before they did, they had to gather the next team, and help them remember that they were more than what they believed themselves to be.
Earth people often forgot things. In some ways it was a better that way. In other ways, not so much. Their forgetfulness was causing disasters all throughout the Earth Realm.
Greed and lack of empathy had taken over many of the prominent rulers in the Earth dimension. Whether this dimension survived would largely depend on what this new group could accomplish to turn the tide.
In Erda, things had also changed. It was one reason that Earl and Ariel had to return to Erda. It was also why the other members of the Forest Circle would be traveling to other dimensions. Dimensions that had been chosen as a possible new home in case both Earth and Erda managed to destroy themselves.
In the Earth dimension, many people would be responsible for the destruction. In Erda, it was just one person doing all the damage.
Suzanne couldn’t see the future, but it wasn’t hard to see the outcome for both dimensions unless something changed. That was why it had become so important to gather the members of the new team, the Stone Circle.
Each one had been observed their entire Earth lives. Each one had a role to play in the salvation of the Earth Realm. They were a Karass, a group of people with a mission together that they would need to remember.
Although most of them were born in the Earth Realm, there were three that had been born in Erda and moved to Earth. They would eventually return to Erda, but first, some things had to happen in the Earth Realm.
Knowing two worlds, two dimensions, was difficult. But Suzanne’s life had never been easy. She was much more than even her best friend knew.
As Suzanne watched Earl prepare the room for the meeting, Suzanne’s thoughts drifted back to when she had been given a choice of what she would become. She wasn’t sure if it was ever really a choice, but her mother had made her believe that it was. Perhaps that was the way of the world. Choose for yourself or life will choose for you.
Suzanne wasn’t sure which one was the harder road to travel. But she knew what she had chosen was what her mother had wanted her to choose, and that made all the difference.
Abigail looked up from her work to see Suzanne leaning against the wall staring into space.
“Something bothering you, Suzanne?”
“You mean more than trying to get ready for this transition?”
“More than that. And since once this happens everything will be different, perhaps now you will tell me more about what happened between you and your mother.
“I know you are more than appears on the surface. I couldn’t have been your friend for this long without knowing there is more. Maybe this is the time you tell me the story. That way, I can carry that story with me, and keep it safe.”
Suzanne looked at her friend and realized how much she wanted to tell just one other person about the choice that changed her life. What would Abigail think?
Abigail answered Suzanne’s thoughts. “No matter what you tell me, it won’t change how I feel about you, Suzanne. Forever and ever, you and I are connected.
Suzanne paused one minute more, and then made up her mind. Abigail was right. It was time. First, Suzanne stepped into the kitchen and made them each a cup of coffee. Perhaps this way, it would feel less important, and more like any other story.
Suzanne drifted back to her time with her mother and began her story.
Three
“‘You have to make a choice. Which do you choose?’
“That’s the message I heard over and over again. It was the last thing I heard before I went to bed at night. I dreamed about it. It was the first thing on my mind in the morning.
“During the day while I pretended that nothing important was going on, it pinged into my brain. Choose. ‘Will you take on your destiny? Or are you going to run away and pretend that a life as only one thing is enough for you.’
“That was the question. Run or stay and be two things. Live two lives. Who could choose something like that? Well, I had to, just as every shapeshifter has to decide.”
Abigail drew in a breath, and Suzanne paused to look at her.
“So, this is what you have been living with all this time?”
Suzanne nodded. “Is this too much? Shall I tell you the rest?”
“Of course, I want to hear. You have shown us all that there is more than what appears to us. The fact that you are more than this human shape doesn’t really surprise me. Now you have to tell me the rest of the story!”
Suzanne sighed and began again. Now that she had started the story, she had to finish it.
“That’s it, you see. Now we have a choice. My mother had fought for us to have the right to choose. She didn’t. So she made sure that I, and every other shapeshifter in Erda, could decide for themselves. Be one, or be two, or more, if that was your nature. My mother was revered for fighting for that choice. But at times I didn’t want it.
“My mother was asking me to choose whether I would remain only as the person everyone knows as Suzanne, or embrace my destiny and also become Lady the dragon.”
Suzanne glanced over at her friend, Abigail to see what her response was to what she had said. But Abigail simply nodded at her to go on, her eyes soft and understanding. Suzanne took a deep breath and continued.
“My choice was more straightforward than some other shapeshifters because not every shapeshifter is only two things.
“These lucky, or unlucky shapeshifters, can become anything at all. They can become liquid, or air, or a man, woman, or ani
mal. The shape they keep the most is not necessarily their real self. The form most shapeshifters choose to show is the one that helps them fit in the best.
“These shapeshifters want to be part of their world and be comfortable in it. Sometimes they hide what they can do, and their best friends have no idea that they are anything other than the person they know.”
Once again, Suzanne glanced at Abigail, who smiled and nodded at her to go on. If she was astonished at what she was hearing, it wasn’t showing.
“Others never settle down into one or another shape. Either because they are comfortable in multiple environments, or they love to stand out, be stared at, or be the hero or villain that everyone recognizes.
“But for shapeshifters like me, we are only two things. So the choice should be easier. But it’s not really. There is the problem of changing between forms. Well, let’s just say that it’s not pleasant. Probably looks effortless to someone looking on. One moment I will be a person, the next I will be a dragon. But those brief seconds of transition are always, always painful.
“‘Choose, Suzanne,’” my mother would say to me, and for years I turned away. I don’t know if that indecision was painful for my mother and father to watch, but they stayed out of it and let me choose.
“I almost said no, and yet they still didn’t step in. Maybe my parents always knew I would choose to live two lives and fulfill my destiny.
“They knew what that choice meant. Both my mother and father are the same as me, human and dragon. They knew what they were asking of me because they lived it. However, my mother believed in freedom of choice. She thought that was the kinder way to go, to let me, and all shapeshifters choose. But it didn’t feel that way.