by M E Wise
“Fuckin’ Halfer!” is cried out from behind a filtered mask. I am struck in the head. By what, I don’t know. The pain sears me to near unconsciousness. I was unprepared for this. My last view was my blood running from my face along the floor to the direction of the observation portal as I watch the flurry of ever-changing flight patterns of men in ships streaking artificial rainbows of light into a blurred tapestry. I pass out. A heartbeat pounding in my head.
Her blood filled my eyes. Everything was a shade of pink. Even his hate filled his hands. I cried alone and then fell silent to the sharing.
There is a grinding in my head. I feel a cracking and then my eyes flutter. One man is being very secretive and the rest I can sense watch carefully for him. “Did anyone hear that noise? Like a baby crying?” The strange man asked. “There’s a heartbeat too! Amazing, simply amazing.” The man stabbed a large needle into my arm and was not gentle about any of it. I felt him ripping at my flesh and I was losing consciousness again.
“Allotrios!” His voice carried in the vessel. “I repeat Allotrios! Report to receiving.”
I turned my head to his nicely polished shoes in a ring of blood. My blood. “Don’t just stand there, get me the CCCT unit! We need to contain him.” Feet trampled about. “Allotrios no more he whispered into my ear. Let’s see what you are…” the lights faded.
I am alone in the machine. All alone in the machine. Except for the watchers. They are always watching!
Reign Chapter 8
This Gilded Cage
The room was spinning when I came too. I could tell that I had been studied to a great extent and I was still wearing medical and surgical tape on different appendages. My wounds had healed already as they always seem to do. One side of my head had been shaved. I rub it and hear the bristle of stubble scratch my hand.
“Man, bro they really worked some things out on you!” Came a strange voice nearby. “Over here.” Came with a knock on what sounded like heavy plastic.
I looked around my cell. It was a cell completely closed in. One clear wall faced to the corridor running perpendicular the room. Across, another cell with a lone occupant. He lay stretched out in black fatigues. The other walls had ports. Two looking into other cells, the other with a port looking into dead and empty space. It was bright; intolerably bright and I am certain it was on purpose. The cell to my left held the talkative captive. Talkative or not we were all captives here.
“I’m talking to you! Hey!” Came the almost harassing voice again. “I’m talking at you Halfer!”
That got my attention. That is what the soldier said before he tried to crush my skull in. I imprinted his mind as he said it. I hope to see him again in the future. I stood quickly and fell to the floor just as fast. They have me completely drugged. A human without my physiology would most likely still be unconscious. I can’t focus my mind enough to vet my surroundings in a sharing either. I know that is forbidden for now but I think the circumstances warrant some type of fluid interpretation of those guidelines.
My antagonist laughed. “Dude you are going to split that melon again. And please watch the gown! No one is paying to see your backside in this joint.”
I hadn’t realized that I am nearly naked. I am wearing some disposable clothe. The Mor’h didn’t exactly preach modesty. After all I was studied as much in the buff as I was in my vacuum suit. I looked to the noisy neighbor and could see him jump in and out of sight, up and down and out of view of the portal. Apparently he wasn’t very tall. I found this sight almost a moment of relief. This is the kind of reception I would have rather endured coming from half a galaxy away.
“Do you know where you’re at man? You’re in the flagship of the OG!” My neighbor says hopping up and down. “That’s huge bro! You’d think I heard of you.”
“I’m afraid not. I’m not from around here.” I said attempting to shake off the dizziness and move toward his portal.
“He talks! He talks!” Squawked the bouncing voice. “I was starting to think you were one of those simple Halfers. All drugged up for your own good and stuff like that. They do some crazy things to make people normal you know.”
He had a slight accent not entirely English. Maybe it was some new dialect adopted in space. Then I caught sight of him as he happened to clumsily squeeze against the wall and hang on the window ledge. His features were Asian from the side I saw; the right side as he intentionally tried to hide his left. His every action was one curious activity after another. I stood just tall enough to see into his cell. And he hid away just out of sight when I looked in.
“Oh man you are seriously pale!” He said as he quickly took a peek from my left peripheral view. Managing to keep his left side hidden, back against the wall. “Is it a sun thing? You some sort of cosmic vampire?”
“No.” The question seemed inappropriate. “Who are you?”
“No what?” He questioned. “No-you aren’t a cosmic vampire? No-the sun doesn’t cause agonizing pain when it hits your face? I’m not answering nothin’ Halfer!”
“I can say the same friend. I need not answer any questions.” I turned and also put my back to the wall. He came to investigate the window. I could hear him bump the wall to hold himself up to look in. I turned quickly to catch a better look at him. He was surprised and fell straight back onto the floor. I found myself just as surprised. Half of his face was almost Mor’h-like. His left eye was completely black and absent any white. His face paled to the left as well and his bone structure and musculature also sloped more dramatically on the same side. His hair receded back, smooth to above his left ear. On his left hand were only four elongated fingers, a thumb and a malleable pinky. Another bi-product on the transitional amalgamation research line of garbage I was here to pander. It was becoming evidently clear that the effect the Mor’h had on humans far outweighed any explanation I could ever give.
“Ah!” He bellowed. “You are way uglier up close!” By human standards I had the symmetry of many old movie stars. What an odd choice of words. Maybe times have adopted a new set of attractive traits. “Man! Dude; you are going to have to wear a hood in these parts or a full faced helmet. Nobody is going to give you the time of day. Your eyes are crazy! And look at that bleached hair…”
“Enough.” I cut him off. Knowing humans placed a ridiculously high importance on looks as they called it in my holos.
“Eee-nough” he mocked! “A’right; I can see I touched a nerve. Let’s start over Halfer to Halfer.”
“Halfer is a derogatory description of a condition currently misunderstood.” I said forcefully.
“Or bro, it’s just what we are.” He said less energetically.
“I am Reign.” I said cautiously. “Let’s start this exchange over if that is possible.”
“Ben. How’d you get a name like Reign?” He said in his usual whimsical way. “You royalty?” He laughs.
“It is only Reign. I am not royalty. I am an al…” I paused momentarily before confessing. “I am new to this space thing.”
“Well just Reign. I’m Benjamin Edison Itou!” He said it as if to distinguish himself aloud. “I know, I know; my dad was a Japanese immigrant and was in love with American history. So I got this name and this freaky two-face thing too.”
“An immigrant?” I questioned. A foreigner from another land on his way to a new home. “I can be considered an immigrant too.” I said thoughtfully.
“We are all immigrants somewhere bro. Not a single one of us without roots can say we’re native.” He said wisely.
He had no idea how much meaning was in his words. His eyes drifted over his shoulder and two guards escorted a woman down the corridor. I get the sense she has seen me before as she doesn’t stare like I am some sort of germ in a Petri dish. The guards come in and begin to restrain me. I can’t help but want to stop them but I let them. The woman with a nametag; simply Dr. Dae O’Shea, begins ripping lengths of tape and preparing a needle. Once I am restrained she urg
es the guards to give us a moment of privacy as she disrobes me. They grumble at the idea. “Fine. We’ll be outside. Who wants to see that freak naked anyway?” Says a brute of an officer. He is not the man I marked. Nor is his companion.
“Hey-hey Gorgy!” He yells at the man across from my cell. “How’s the cool down? Being drunk and temperamental doesn’t set well with the brass, even for officers!” His conversation is drowned out by this woman’s presence.
I had never been so close to anything so intriguing. Her red hair and bright blue eyes mesmerized. Her smell, so sweet and clean. Not like the armor and oil that the soldiers wore. She was distinctly different. Her badge had a corporate logo, a red cross. In her touch she sent goose bumps up my arm. And I had realized my mouth was agape when she said, “this won’t hurt. Hopefully you don’t heal before I pull this needle out again. It’s awful to have to rip it back out.”
“Are you in any pain?” She said as if it were sung to me. “Sir?”
“Reign.” I said.
“Sir Reign then!” She smiled. Red lipstick draped over shiny white teeth. “Do you have any pain?”
“None. Should I?” I said questioningly.
She laughed out loud. “You’re an odd man Sir Reign! I would feel a great deal of pain after all of the procedures…”
“That is enough doctor!” Squawked a soldier. “Do you have what you need?”
“I do.” She said as she stared straight into my eyes. And for a split second I felt the link! She had a deep need for freedom. She wanted freedom. She wanted me to be free. The moment spun me in ways I have never felt before. It was an accident but I shared more than I should have, took more than I should have. Feelings, thoughts, time from both our accounts. None of the details to define those moments, but we now knew each other in ways no human had ever known another. There is no way to tell how that will effect this situation. My woozy head whirled around, my eyes batted and fought for focus. Dae echoed in my head.
They whisked her out as quick as they came. She didn’t dose me. I even think she faked half of the procedure. I would be very clear soon enough on that. I will have to be very careful, some panic occurs in sharing with humans. I should know, I am half of one, I thought slowly as the idea sank in that I was the alien here. I was the thing to be studied. I couldn’t let those feelings sink into the sharing. Not into her. But it had happened.
“Looks like the OG has a new plaything.” Came a nasally deep voice from the cell across from me.
“Stuff it Gorgy!” taunted Ben from his cell. “Nobody wants to hear from the village idiot!”
“I put you in that cell Halfer. You are lucky I brought back both halves!” He threatened. Only his eyes held a stern promise in them. He wore round glasses, odd for this day and age. A red beret fit perfectly on his head. Although I didn’t find it accustomed to be worn indoors. He didn’t seem the type to follow protocol. He was tall and lanky but built like an athlete. His sleeves were torn from his black fatigues. As he walked to the clear wall of his cell to face me I stood naked and covered myself with the gown before staring back at him.
“You aren’t any Halfer I have ever seen. Something is completely new about your kind of aberration.” He said menacingly.
“That’s a huge word Gorgy!” Mouthed Ben. “You win or lose a word game recently? Can you say insubordinate too?”
He gripped his overtly long beard for an officer and ran his hand down it angrily. “We will both have a nice contest of verbal discourse again, you can count on it. Followed by another beating of epic proportions!” He said with a sneer. His breath fogged his glass as he snickered. And he gnarled his face as he looked to me again. “What are you?”
I drifted into his mind shortly as his eyes widened and he tilted his head as if to acknowledge I was there. His thoughts were short violent and in jarring procession. Every ounce of his senses riled with an uncontrollable hate for anything unnatural as he deemed it. I stumbled and sat down on the narrow bunk behind me.
“Did you see what you wanted?” He said hauntingly. “We sure got what we wanted!” He said again, almost certainly of his awareness in the sharing. “When something breaks free of its natural environment; two things happen.” He says as he paces back and forth in his cell. “That thing either adapts or it runs scurrying back to that normalcy it has always known. Back to safety. Back to where everything was the same. If it makes it back.” He says glancing back over his shoulder. “Sometimes that thing is changed so much when it goes back home that nothing normal will ever accept it again.”
“Normal may just be a genetic difference for another.” I said softly.
He slams into the glass cage in front of him and rips off his beret! His head half bald on top and scarred. “This!” He points to his head salivating. “This is fucking genetic!” He tears off his glasses and turns them as if to have me try them on. And screams, “This is your fucking genetics freak!” he spits on the glass. “Madness is fucking genetic.” He transitions into a near heavy Siberian accent. “Still-birth is genetic! Susceptibility to disease, skin color and sex-fucking sex man!” He carries on. “That!” he points to Ben. “You.” He points then to me with force. “You are fucking abominations to be sent back to whatever nightmare created you!” He spits again. “I am Gorgon Pri, a natural man, a godly creation. I know not what you are but you will know me.”
The lights dramatically dim as it must be lights out. But who sleeps with a monster in the room. There is now yet another level of contention to my so called mission. How naïve were we to think this would have worked? How much more foreign could our methods be? And why have I suddenly felt more Mor’h than human? Ben found his way back to his central bunk. I moved to mine and kept a watchful eye on the crazed man across the way. He climbed back into his bunk and turned away from me. Whoever this Gorgon Pri was, he gave me know idea that he feared me. He hated what I was. I polluted the holiness of the human kingdom. Halfers and I shared no special distinction in his indiscriminant mind. Normal was his own ideal and he determined what that was quickly.
The doctor again crossed my mind. I didn’t get the repulsion from her that this man had. In fact, I felt something odd in the sharing. There was a deep level of admiration. Strangely new, an affectionate observation. There lay an attraction. I could still smell her hair. I used her image to find some solace in this unfortunate prison. Maybe there’s still hope once they realize I am only here for peaceful communication. I can forgive the fear and the animosity. This rude reception was only a precaution however angrily tempered. She was beautiful, more so than the shipping lane. And all can be forgiven.
I feel her deeply. Love like a mothers, complete but separate. It’s all new. Everything is new.
Reign Chapter 9
Once More with Feeling
“Look closely at this clever disguise.” Loudly projects a man parading around me, his voice trails off. They must have drugged me again. It wasn’t Dr. O’Shea, at least I don’t think it could be. My brain feels half asleep but not as deeply affected as before. I must have been sedated with less tranquillizer or they assumed I had more in my system to disable me. The machines around the room beep and buzz. My vision is fixed in my right eye! What is going on? I shift to move and my left arm pains me. I cannot move my limbs free. All of my wincing has their attention.
“And our honored guest has awakened!” Says the boisterous man speaking before me.
My vision clears as I see an older man in a form fitted tunic and pant uniform. It is obvious this is some kind of uniform. It was the man from a few days ago. Allotrios is what he called me. Several others wear different shades of this same attire. He urgently addresses a younger person in the room with subtle motions. Lights begin to dim and concentrate on me. It would seem they intend to take my sudden lucidness as an opportunity to exchange. An interrogation appears imminent. A sudden surge of violent electricity runs through my body! My teeth gnash.
Their fear. So intense. I am only an infant.
Only an infant!
The jolt wears off quickly and I can hear the machine charge again with a clear tone. The young attendant anxiously awaits a second order or gesture signaling another use. He is waived off however. The older man leans in close to my view. He adjusts his tunic and speaks quietly and monotonously.
“You have stumbled into a fine mess. Fortunate for us though.” He says as he picks at a sets of pins inserted into my eye that causes incredible pain! “I will ask questions. I may even allude to a question and you will be given opportunity to answer-if we believe you have an answer. Should you attempt to elude us I will be given license to preserve as much of you as possible; what that is-is to my discretion.”
I clearly see his rank of Science circled to include Vice Admiral with a black star with a crescent moon centered inside. This is separate of the recognizable Orbital Guard insignia. I quickly scan the room for everyone in it. How many? I sense for brief emote signatures for threat assessment. I can’t let them know-they can’t catch me yet! There are five total. The indignant one, two guards, the one lackey and Dr. O’Shea? How? Why is she here? Her signature is very troubled. She remains horrified and out of sight.
