Revelations, Chapter 1

Posted on Thu 3rd Sep, 2020 @ 2:18am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran & Captain Andrus Grax
Edited on on Sun 6th Sep, 2020 @ 7:31am

1,142 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Intelligence Department, Interview Room 1
Timeline: MD 3, 1328

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. (KJV Revelation 13:10)

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It was deathly quiet in the interrogation room as Helle gathered her thoughts, organized them, and began. "I do not know all the names. You asked what they wanted me ... us ... to do. I'm not sure what the ring had to do with things. Maybe it was to simply kill us when we did what we were asked." She shrugged, as if it didn't really matter.

"We were assigned as a lookout, for one thing, watching for those who might uncover the secrets going on here on your starbase." A small smile played on her lips. "I think we were less than effective at that, since you caught us not long after our arrival. In fact, the last thing I did was the contact with your Aenar friend. He's a pirate, among other things, and he's ... leased, I guess you could say, by those above him. About those, I know nothing."

She paused for a sip of water, trying to keep her thoughts organized. "Another purpose was to find women ... small digression here to explain why women. The lead scientist, if you can call such a person by that term, determined that men didn't work as well in his experiments. Before you ask, no I don't know the full scope of his experiments, but I do know that he is working to separate some ... internal force? Maybe that's a good term, maybe not. I don't fully understand his science. But he wants to separate this thing from the physical body that ties it down. Then he wants to use it for something else, but I honestly don't know what the final goal is. No one spoke of that in my hearing."

In the observation room, Paul frowned as he listened to Zelda Alegari (or whoever she was at the moment) speak. This was sounding less and less like Dobbs by the moment--which was a relief and also alarming. The MO sounded completely different from what Zachary Hunt had told him about Dobbs a few years before, and it sounded different from the science behind the ring that Chlamydia and Lanis had removed from Zelda's finger. Paul had no difficulty believing that that artifact had been of Dobbs' creation. But this talk of isolating some internal force from a physical body? That didn't sound like Dobbs' line of research, at all.

So perhaps I ought to stop trying to connect any of this to Dobbs, and instead focus on what the lady is saying Paul told himself sternly. Adrian Dobbs is not the be-all and end-all of evilness in this universe--more's the pity.

And yet, something about this isolation of an internal force idea made him feel sick to his gut, deeply sick, fervent-denial sick. Why, Paul wondered? The idea was horrifying, yes, but he had no reason to deny the thought as desperately as he felt himself wanting to do. He looked at Grax. "Could she be talking about a Vulcan katra? Someone's trying to isolate that--forcibly?"

"Different races have different terms," Grax replied quietly, without looking across at the counsellor. "Katra, soul, comra - whatever the translation, the concept is essentially the same. Personally, it's not something I ever held to - but clearly, whoever is behind these experiments did... And they were willing to put individuals through unspeakable pain in order to try and find it..."

"The only way I know that a katra--of anyone--can be manipulated is by a specially-trained Vulcan priest," Paul said. "The number of them is minuscule, and the training takes decades. They used to doubt that fal-tor-pan was more than a myth."

In the interview room, Damion thought a moment. "So how did this researcher plan to know if his experiment had worked?" he asked. "Wi'out a physical body, there's no way to communicate or compel, so what would be the point? Unless that's what the Aenar was for?" He paused. "And if it is, that's getting beyond my area of expertise. I'm not sure what questions to ask you, and you might not even know the answers. What sort of technology could even do what you describe? Did you ever see any of it?"

"I did see it once, yes. I can't tell you a thing about what they were doing or their methods. I saw a line of beds ... or maybe they were chairs that leaned back, I'm not sure. There were," she closed her eyes to see more clearly, "eight of them, but one was empty. Waiting, recently vacated? I don't know.

"People, all humans by appearances, were lying with their eyes closed, covered with white sheets and blankets up to their chins. Something was attached to their foreheads - monitoring vitals or extracting memories ... maybe even putting in information, there was no way to tell. Everyone had some kind of monitor, but I couldn't see any of them. There was a tube that entered the neck of each one, as well."

Helle opened her eyes, and they were bleak as they glanced at the Arachne, whose needles had stilled momentarily. She refocused on Ildaron. "I was brought there on purpose, I think, because my handler said to look long and well. If I didn't perform as expected, I might be the next experiment in the room. Then I was led away, into a smaller space, and I'm pretty sure that's when they added the ring to my finger, though I remember nothing beyond the opening of the room's door."

Staring at her entwined fingers, Helle frowned. "I don't know how I know what they were doing with those people ... where I got the idea about what they were doing. Something must have been said, or I picked up some whisper, or saw something I don't recall ... but I'm sure they were trying to separate the life force from the physical body." She looked up at Dr. Addams. "I'm absolutely positive that's what was going on."

Chlamydia nodded slowly. The chamber of horror that laboratory 49-A represented resembled the description the young lady across the table was giving. Was it possible the slavers were using the same neural computing matrix? It had run for over a decade, unattended, in the hidden lab. It was, therefore, somewhat robust and quite possibly useful, if terrifying in its implications.

Another implication occurred to the physician. Briggs was being haunted by a woman -- his possibly-late wife -- who did not behave at all in the way Addams expected ghosts to behave. Chlamydia cleared her throat. "I suspect I know the point of that experiment... or at least, its results."

To be continued ....

 

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