Experiment Read online

  At the moment, however, I am personally inclined to abandon the project simply because it offers nothing tangible or immediate. Fortunately for you, my judgment was over-ruled by my junior members here. We have reached a compromise. Unless you can prove that your invention can achieve a profitable return within two months, the project will be terminated. Thank you for your time and good luck to you.”

  The images of the board members went blank.

  James was elated. He had an idea for an adaptation to the telescope that he was eager to work on, and now he knew he had ample time to do it.

  It was a supposedly impossible undertaking; something deemed fanciful by every top scientist in the world. James had thought of a new way to approach the problem and two months of covert morning work should be more than enough time to pull it off. If he could just put in a solid eight or ten hours, he could probably complete it all at once.

  Again, he would need to be careful. Many scientists had been terminated in the past due to independent thought and erratic actions. It seemed as though the great thinkers’ genetic material was somehow more fragile than that of others because over time they seemed to unravel emotionally and mentally. The scientific community was under constant surveillance to ensure genetic deterioration was promptly dealt with.

  Throughout his years at the corporation James had seen two colleagues taken away for termination. The issue of genetic deterioration amongst high level scientists had always been an embarrassing statistic for the corporations employing them, which was the main reason scientists were watched so closely. One false move or inappropriate reaction from any scientist was often in itself grounds for termination.

  James addressed his staff. “We have two months to discover a way to make the transporter profitable. Bear in mind the vast amounts of energy required to operate it and therefore the great costs involved in operating it. The financial rewards must exceed the necessary expenditures. Until a viable plan is set in place, there is no need to operate the transporter. Once we have a clear idea of how to garner profits from the transporter we can then begin a new phase of testing. Until then, all work will be done in the lower halls. I will check on your progress at 11am and 6pm every day. Access to the transporter or telescope will be granted if I deem it necessary. Until then, the lab is off limits to all personnel besides myself and the corporate officers. As it is almost eleven o’clock already, I will meet with you at 6pm tonight. Thank you.”

  With that, the staff convened to the lower level and James was alone with his invention. He closed the door to his lab and leaned against his desk in deep thought.

  It was a brilliant stroke of quick thinking to effectively banish his assistants from the lab. He now had ample time to work on his new theory at length, that is, unless one of his technicians actually came up with a workable idea sooner rather than later. He already knew what to do to make the transporter profitable but he was confident that his staff would not arrive at the same conclusion that he had for quite some time.

  He didn't immediately tamper with the transporter or the telescope. His theory was so groundbreaking that it left him somewhat unsure of himself. If he didn’t think of every detail and factor in every possible variable, the outcome would most certainly be catastrophic. He plugged his display into his right temple, and immediately, all the equations he thought of showed on it. He checked every one of them over the next hour until he was confident they were correct. He unplugged the display and wiped the memory clean.

  He ate the required lunch along with all the recommended supplements and then began fabricating some of the hardware necessary for the new modification. Normally, the specs for the hardware were sent downstairs and it would all be fabricated by the manufacturing department. James couldn't risk anyone stumbling upon his discovery and so he was forced to design and build it all himself.

  He worked feverishly over the next several hours with the knowledge that he could finish with the new modification before day’s end.

  As he worked, his thoughts dwelled upon Margaret. She must have handled the sweep well enough because it was now almost 3pm and he was still alive.

  James had always suspected there were others like himself who were cunning enough to hide their true selves. He was proven correct two years ago when the corporation set-up his domicile mate. He couldn’t have been more fortunate in their choice of partner. Margaret initiated the first sexual contact. She was well aware of the ramifications had he not the desire to reciprocate. They had lived in constant fear of being found out but now they had something even more serious to contend with.

  Just three weeks ago, Margaret had given birth to a child. James had delivered the child himself. The boy was well hidden within their domicile but keeping the noise levels undetectable was a little harder to deal with. James had fabricated a floating wall that stood just two feet from the existing wall in their bedroom. This meant that their 12”x12” bedroom was now 12”x10”. The baby’s room was just 2”x10” but it was enough for now. The interior of the baby’s room was somewhat soundproofed since there was just no way to keep its noise levels adequately low. The crying was always a constant concern for them.

  In years gone by, natural pregnancies were normally destroyed by the parents either before or just after birth. The consequences were just too devastating. Fortunately for society, there had not been a recorded case of natural birth in hundreds of years. No one was permitted to have sex, let alone conceive children and thanks to the genetic recipe added to everyone’s make-up by government standards, no one ever considered entertaining sexual thoughts. In a way, this helped James and Margaret’s actions go undetected. No one alive had ever seen a pregnant woman or even a young child except for the laborers within the child camps and those laborers were never seen in normal society.

  Margaret was able to deflect questions about her increasing stomach size by simply saying she was gaining weight from a harmless illness.

  To say she was simply gaining weight from eating would have been absurd; no one was overweight from simply eating anymore. The daily exercise regime, perfect genetic make-up, and exact diet ensured this.

  Margaret spent the entire third trimester inside the domicile and only showed herself during routine sweeps. Fortunately, because James was a high ranking asset of the corporation, the sweeps on his residence were uncommon; occurring about once a month.

  Things would get more difficult as the boy got older. They would need to treat him as a captive. To let him out at such a young age would be suicide. Children were not a part of society. They did not become active members of society until the age of seventeen at which point they were assigned a vocation and a permanent residence based upon their genetic programming.

  It broke James’ heart that his son would never live a normal life. He would be raised and educated in isolation.

  The plan was that if they could avoid being detected until he turned seventeen, then James might be able to steal or forge a set of fake identification tags and implant them into his son himself. His son could then live the planned out life of someone else.

  Of course the plan would become a disaster if they didn’t adequately teach the boy to avoid suspicion and detection. It all worried James immensely but he had become masterful at hiding his inner self. His responses to every dilemma were carefully constructed. He would need to teach his son the same tricks for everything to work out. On the other hand, the likelihood of everything going according to plan was infinitely small.

  The best solution, by far, would have been to terminate the child. This would have lead to the best outcome for them because it would eliminate the glaringly obvious reality of their situation. Without the child, there was no proof that he and Margaret were engaging in illegal sexual contact.

  Before the child was born, they had planned to get rid of it as soon as it was delivered. James could sneak the baby into his lab and place it inside the transporter. Since organic material was destroyed upon transportation via the tran
sporter, there would be absolutely no evidence left. The body would immediately evaporate.

  Once the boy was born however, a new plan was devised that did not involve terminating him, but instead, raising and nurturing him (they both instinctively and unexpectedly felt protective toward him).

  They were having some trouble caring for him because there was no information available showing how to treat a newborn baby. Margaret figured out how to feed the boy with mammary secretions, fairly early on.

  The crying and the sleepless nights seemed abnormal to them. James pondered solutions to the problem on a daily basis but most of what he tried failed to alleviate the crying. He found that humming and rocking the boy sometimes helped and he was amazed that he had ever figured this solution out in the first place; it made no logical sense and yet it had come to him naturally, as though it were instinctive or intuitive.

  He wondered when the child would begin to walk and talk and he didn’t know if the boy would learn these things on his own or if he had to be taught them.

  The whole situation was confusing and stressful to both of them. Margaret had begun exhibiting strange mood swings after the boy was born and James could only hope that they were normal and temporary.

  They had not yet chosen a name for him; he was only a few weeks old and so they thought they still had time.

  At 3:50 pm James left for his daily exercise regime. He had to be at the workout facility by 4pm and so he arrived at exactly 4pm. He spent the next thirty minutes doing cardio vascular routines. His heart rate was perfect and his stamina was ideal. The readouts at the end of the workout showed everything to be perfectly average for an ordinary citizen. He was always pleased with the results.

  He arrived back at his lab at 5pm, after showering and changing. He hastily went about setting the telescopes coordinates for an area near where he’d sent it earlier that morning.

  He entered the second set of coordinates exactly as he had done before. To deviate could bring disaster. He worried that he’d been too hasty in going forward with the final stage of modifications earlier and needed to be sure that he saw what he thought he’d seen that morning.

  He turned the telescope around by 157 degrees and tilted it downward by 38 degrees. The display he’d seen earlier that morning led him to believe that he had sent it to a region of space close in proximity to a planet that looked remarkably like the earth. He wanted to be sure of this before he continued forward. He needed to have a better look around.

  He set the coordinates on his hidden panel to return within ten seconds. He sent it noiselessly and ten seconds later it returned.

  He quickly plugged himself in to the telescope and was ecstatic at what he saw. At the very edge of the image was definitely a planet that looked almost identical to the earth. The statistics showed the atmosphere and climate to be nearly identical too. The planet also had a satellite that looked remarkably like the moon. It even followed the same orbit as the moon and was distanced ideally from the earthlike planet. He zoomed in on the planet and was absolutely amazed at what he saw beneath the cloud covering.

  He was amazed that he’d found such a place on his very first try. The odds were staggeringly minute that it would work out this way. He'd worried just that morning that he might not retrieve the telescope at all, and now, here he was, staring at the impossible.

  He knew what this meant and he knew that the final stage of modifications could continue forward.

  He spent the next half hour fabricating what he needed. At 6pm he entered the lower halls and addressed his staff. None of them had come up with a viable solution to the problem and so he sent them home for the night.

  He went back to his lab and finished the modifications a little after 7pm. He installed the hardware and checked the telescope over to see that it would perform its new functions; he was pleased to see that everything was in order.

  He now had a power supply, and a propulsion and guidance system hidden beneath the main panel. He'd also added two supposedly impossible additions. One allowed for the input of a second and separate set of coordinates and the other created a kind of protective barrier. With any luck, everything would work in unison to allow him to do several seemingly impossible things all at once. Although he was anxious to test it, it was already late and Margaret would worry. He secured the lab and made his way home.

  He entered the domicile to find Margaret holding the child and sobbing uncontrollably at the kitchen table. He stepped toward the kitchen but suddenly a man stepped from around the corner and blocked his path. He heard footfalls behind him and turned to see other men approaching from the back. Their dress identified them as termination officers.

  The man in front of him said, “Hello James, please take a seat.” He beckoned toward the kitchen table.

  James knew they were caught and was surprised that it was playing out this way. Normally a person is simply led away and terminated the instant any suspicious behavior is observed.

  Margaret should have been terminated along with his son at around 2pm when the sweep had detected their secret. He would have then been dispensed with just moments later.

  The punishments were always swift and merciless.

  James sat down and took Margaret’s hand into his own. He needn’t worry about the repercussions any longer.

  The man stood in silence for a moment, observing them closely.

  James asked Margaret, “How did they find out?”

  “I have no idea. The child was sleeping silently and I kept my emotions well hidden. They didn’t even do a sweep. They just showed up and detained me without any proof. They went straight to the baby’s room and brought him out. You should have seen them. This man carried him out like he was an explosive.” She sneered at the man in front of them.

  James was still in shock. He’d always felt like this day would inevitably come but he'd never really imagined it this way. Terminations were carried out so quickly that the suspect didn’t have time to fear what was about to happen. In a way, James wished they would just get it over with right away.

  As though the man had read his mind, he said, “You will not be immediately terminated. Yours is something of a special case and we are here to bring you before the governing panel in order for them to address you personally. You can be assured that the terminations will be carried out before the end of the day. Follow me.”

  The man briskly walked out of the kitchen.

  They followed close behind and the remaining officers took up the rear. They reached the elevators and were soon headed to the top floor. As far as James knew, nobody had ever been to the top floor. In fact, he didn’t even know what went on up there. His clearance didn't allow him access to the top floor or to the basement.

  The elevator doors opened and they were led along a corridor to a large set of ornate steel doors. The man opened the doors with a flourish and stepped inside. The interior was magnificent. It was the largest room James had ever seen.

  Ahead of them sat the five board members in person as well as his small team of technicians. James was confused. The board members reported to the government but they were not technically government agents. His technicians were just technicians so what were they doing here? This didn't appear to be a legitimate governing panel. Something was out of place here.

  There were two men sitting on the panel that he'd seen before. He'd seen these two men dragged off for termination, years ago. Perhaps they were simply age accelerated clones. Either way James felt uneasy about their presence.

  The panel members were seated in a row on a platform about four feet off the ground. James and Margaret were led to two small chairs facing the panel. They sat and waited nervously for someone to speak.

  One of the technicians spoke first. His name was Nigel and James had always thought of him as a fairly competent scientist. He said, “First of all I’d like to say that I personally think that this is in no way a fault of yours. You will be terminated today and it is regrettable to some
of us that this must happen. You have become too much of a liability lately and your actions are far too reckless.”

  James was rendered speechless. He didn’t know what to think about what he was hearing; especially because he was hearing it from Nigel.

  Nigel continued, “This Corporation is not actually that. It is a government testing facility acting independently from the main government. Many years ago it was proposed that genetically designed humans had run their course; that as long as we continue to omit natural humans from the population, we would never evolve any further. You see, as long as we design a human for specific tasks and for specific environments, and then give them these ideal environments to live and work in, there is no need for human genes to mutate and therefore evolve. Evolution is a response to changing situations and environments. It has been suggested that had we not banned natural mating so many centuries ago, we may have evolved into an even more perfect species by now. This was a major concern for many of us. We wanted to test this hypothesis but in a controlled setting so as not to infect our society with impure genetic material. As this was an unsanctioned test, secrecy was of the utmost importance. You and Margaret were our test subjects. We chose two males and two females at random. We extracted semen from the males and fertilize the females eggs with it through unnatural means, but it worked. Both of you were the product of this experiment.

  You were placed in child camps so as to raise you as though you were a perfectly normal human. The camps you were raised in were staffed by laborers friendly to us and our cause which is the only reason either of you survived into adulthood. The residence you occupy is a perfect replica of a normal residence within a scientific facility. James, your lab was built to be fully functional. Unfortunately, we could not hire a normal staff for you. They would have spotted you as an oddity from the start and so we were forced to fill those positions ourselves.