The Athena Effect

by Derrolyn Anderson

  ~

  Caledonia woke up in a strange room, blinking at a lacy canopy looming over her pounding head. She struggled to sit up, disoriented, groggy and nauseous. She looked down at the ruffled sleeves on her wrists and came fully awake with a burst of adrenalin.

  She sprang up, wobbly on her feet, looking around in a panic as she tried to get her bearings. It was a bizarre room she found herself in, all light pink walls and floral prints, plush white carpeting soft beneath her feet. There was an elaborately carved armoire, a mirrored vanity and a bureau that was painted with delicate pink roses. The walls were decorated with pictures of ballerinas in tutus, mounted in ornate rococo frames.

  It was as if she had fallen down a rabbit hole into some kind of alternate universe.

  A golden clawfoot tub sat on a raised platform on one side of the room, its waterspout shaped like a swan. The vanity held a silver brush and comb set, alongside dozens of bottles of perfume displayed on a mirrored tray.

  She turned back to see the bed she had risen from was even more ornate than the tub, its gilded headboard populated with carved cupids and cherubs, tumbling and swirling in a scrolled rococo sky. Four tall bedposts held up a lacy canopy that looked like a wedding dress. When Caledonia lifted her eyes her head began to pound.

  She looked down at the ruffled white robe she was wearing, seeing that it covered a white satin nightgown. When she peeked down the top she found a lacy camisole and underwear beneath it. She turned to the mirror over the vanity, looking back at herself with a horrified face.

  Someone had dressed her.

  The shock jolted her into action, and she scanned the room for a way out, realizing that there were no windows, only a locked door. She yanked on the knob, unable to budge it; the hinges were on the opposite side. A clock on the wall told her it was nearly twelve o’clock, but noon or midnight, she couldn’t say.

  She looked around again, taking in all of the details. Although luxurious, the room was artificial and affected, and it stood in stark contrast to the charm of Calvin’s mother’s room. The place felt like an elaborate set–it was an old man’s idea of a little girl’s room, and everything about it was wrong.

  She was trapped, and she paced like a zoo animal, growing more and more agitated as she shook off the lingering effects of whatever they had knocked her out with. There was a ringing sound, and she startled, following the noise to a pink princess-style phone that sat on the white dresser. She picked it up cautiously.

  “I hope that you find the room to your liking,” the professor’s voice said.

  “Let me go,” she said with a shaking voice. “I don’t want to be here.”

  “We need to talk. I’ve arranged for tea in my office.”

  “No! I want to leave now!”

  He ignored her demand. “Go ahead and look in your new wardrobe. I’ve taken the liberty of picking out a few things. You’ll find I’ve spared no expense for you.”

  “I won’t stay here,” she said defiantly.

  “There’s so much that you simply don’t understand. I can tell you all about Jenny and David.”

  “My parents?” her voice cracked.

  “I’ll see you in fifteen minutes.”

  She frantically pushed the buttons on the phone, hoping to reach someone for help, but the line went dead. She squatted down, wrapping her arms around her legs in a futile attempt to self-soothe. She thought of Calvin, and her vision blurred with tears, wondering what he would think when he woke up to find her missing.

  “I’ll get out of here,” she whispered, “I swear it.”

  She started pacing again, anxiously checking the clock every few minutes. She peered inside the wardrobe to find it stocked full of clothes with the tags still on them. She curled her lips in disgust at the thought of dressing to please him, pulling the robe tighter around her body. A few more minutes passed and the door barged open, revealing two big men, both wearing mirrored glasses. Caledonia recognized them from Calvin’s house, and backed herself into a corner defensively.

  “We’re here to take you to Doctor Reed,” Max announced. The other one said nothing, his face expressionless.

  They advanced on her with a wary and determined mindset; she knew that she’d lose against them in a physical fight. Caledonia stared hard into the mirrors of their lenses, doing her best to frighten them. She got no reaction whatsoever, and she realized that they knew to avoid looking directly into her eyes.

  She exhaled, holding up her hands. “All right, all right … I’m coming.”

  Caledonia was escorted out of the room and into a hallway with one man on either side of her. They led her down the corridor and into a wood paneled office that was filled from top to bottom with leather bound books and framed diplomas. The professor glanced up from behind an imposing desk, gesturing to a chair.

  She looked around nervously at the ostentatious room, finally taking a seat.

  “Welcome,” Professor Reed inspected her from his desk, smiling warmly. He nodded to Max, “That will be all.”

  “She’s dangerous,” Max replied. “You shouldn’t be alone with her.”

  Professor Reed took note of the big man’s bandaged hand and nodded. “Why don’t you wait just outside?”

  The professor watched him leave the room, straightening himself at his desk and smiling again. “Max tells me you’re quite the athlete. I understand you put up a vigorous fight.”

  She stared at him, sending him a stupefying blast of confusion.

  “My goodness! I could certainly feel that.” He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of mirrored sunglasses. “You’ll have to forgive the lenses, but it’s only a safety precaution until I can assess your skill level. You’ll discover I’ve trained myself to be quite resistant to the Athena effect.”

  “The Athena effect?”

  “That’s what I call the second generation synesthesia … and the ability to project an emotional state onto others.”

  If she had any doubts at all that he knew what she could do, he had just dispelled them once and for all. Her parents’ warnings echoed in her mind.

  “What do you want with me?”

  “Why, to welcome you to our little family,” he smiled paternally. “You belong to quite an exclusive group–Michael and Layla are so excited about your arrival. We’ve gone to a great deal of trouble to plan a welcome home dinner for you.”

  “This isn’t my home.”

  He leaned back in his chair, his fingertips together. Even without being able to look into his eyes she could see his eager excitement, and feel the weight of his expectations. “Let me explain to you how special you are … how very rare. There are only two of you in existence.”

  “Two of who?”

  “Female offspring of the original test subjects. I’d always suspected that it was the Athena compound that caused Layla to be born with her extraordinary talents, but now you’ve come along and absolutely confirmed it! I’m responsible for your creation so, in a way, you’re like my own daughter, and I expect you’ll grow to see me as a father figure eventually.”

  She recoiled with distaste, leaping to her feet. “You’re nothing like my father!”

  Max darted back into the room, glowering at her, and Caledonia slowly sat back down. The big brute was right, she was dangerous. At the moment she was fighting the overwhelming urge to lunge across the table, grab Professor Reed by the throat and squeeze. Hard.

  He flinched, and she realized he must have glanced into her eyes from behind his mirrored lenses. She redoubled her efforts, sending a cloud of fear his way. He shifted in his seat, clearing his throat.

  “Perhaps I should begin at the beginning.”

  He reached across the desk for a teapot that rested on a tray along with two flowery cups on saucers. He poured tea into both of them, putting cream and sugar into each one without asking. He stirred them methodically while he spoke.

  “I met your parents when I interviewed them for Project Athena.
In fact, I was the one who introduced them. They were both so young, so eager to take part in the research, so very, very brilliant. Ah … I can still remember when they first laid eyes on each other–the sparks really flew!”

  He paused, studying her for a minute. “You certainly do take after both of them … and you have such extraordinary eyes. Heterochromia is definitely linked to your synesthesia.”

  “My synesthesia?” she asked.

  “The neural cross wiring … the blending of sensory perception. You and Layla have a most unique variety of the phenomenon.”

  He slid a cup across the desk, cautiously watching to see what she would do. She took it, pushing aside the impulse to hurl it in his face. Despite her anger, she had a terribly dry throat. She took a sip, her shaking hands betraying her fear and loathing.

  “What kinds of research did my parents do?” she asked.

  His voice crackled with excitement as he described his work in the area of human intelligence. He spoke broadly about his efforts to improve the human mind, explaining that his goal was a noble one. Caledonia watched him gesture wildly, and she could feel the maniacal zeal he exuded. She didn’t need to see his shielded eyes to know that they were on fire when he claimed that he could speed up evolution and improve all of mankind forever.

  “You didn’t tell me what my parents did,” she pointed out.

  He ignored her, going on to explain the many exciting advances in brain research, describing how large portions of the brain were under-utilized.

  “I realized that if I could open up previously dormant areas of the brain to higher functionality there would be virtually no limit on human intelligence. I alone discovered how to increase the brain’s connectivity–to increase neurogenesis and actually spur the growth of new synapses!”

  He leaned forward in his chair. “Imagine a mind that learns faster, is more creative … a mind capable of storing and recalling virtually unlimited amounts of information.”

  She just stared at him.

  “I began by looking at various psychotropic drugs like LSD. They can induce a temporary synesthesia … I found a way to increase these neural pathways.”

  She leaned forward. “So you gave them drugs?”

  “Not just any drugs,” he said pompously. “My proprietary creation. The Athena Compound.”

  He explained how years of trial and error had led to him synthesize a drug that enhanced brain function. He claimed that it increased the intelligence of animals from lab rats to chimps, and was considered so promising that he was provided with an entire wing of the science building in which to conduct human trials.

  “I named it Athena,” he said proudly, “after the goddess of wisdom.”

  “What did it do to them?” she asked, thinking that there was nothing wise about the man who sat before her.

  He shifted in his chair, and she could see him grow uncomfortable. “At first it worked brilliantly. It made them all more intelligent … better. They scored higher on recall, cognition. We were just beginning to see some signs of induced synesthesia when the side effects started to appear.”

  “Side effects?”

  He sighed with disappointment, remembering. “At first it was only the headaches, but after a few weeks they started to experience increasing anxiety. It gradually turned into full blown panic attacks, escalating into extreme paranoid delusions … After the suicides began I did my best to tweak the formula and recruit new subjects, but the university was concerned about lawsuits–”

  Caledonia gasped, “You mean, you just kept going? After people died?”

  He looked at her like she was hopelessly naïve. “If I quit, their sacrifices would be for nothing.” He was indignant, and his color turned an ugly shade of yellow green. “Those short-sighted fools at the university cut off my funding just when I was on the verge of a breakthrough! They forced my resignation and locked me out of my own laboratory!”

  “You chose my parents because they had no family, didn’t you?”

  He seemed surprised. “Why, yes. Yes, I did. It was the best way to avoid any possible legal complications. The students that agreed to participate had their debt forgiven and were provided free tuition and housing for graduate school. But I believe that most subjects participated out of sheer intellectual curiosity.”

  “Subjects,” she repeated, taking note of the clinical, detached way she spoke about them. It was a far cry from the way he’d gushed about his “family” in the newspaper article she’d read. “You knew it was dangerous and you still gave it to them.”

  He took a deep breath, and she could see how intensely bitter he was. “Despite being cut off from my lab and my funding, I kept in contact with the survivors, continuing my observations. When the twins were born I monitored them … Right away I knew the female was special.”

  “The female?” Caledonia echoed his choice of words, appalled at his detached tone.

  “Layla,” he pointed out, unaware of her rising horror. “Her heterochromia, the way she could alter her mother’s mood–even as a toddler I knew she was possessed of a remarkable gift! The three of you were conceived while your mothers were taking the Athena compound, and your unique talents are a mutation brought on by it!”

  “A mutation?” Caledonia asked.

  “Of the X chromosome … A rare gift created by my Athena compound. A gift bestowed on you and Layla alone.”

  “How did you end up raising the twins?” she asked, remembering the tragic story of their mother’s death.

  “Trina made me their guardian shortly before she took her own life.” He smiled triumphantly. “Just as your aunt has given you to me.”

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she shrank back in her chair. “I don’t belong to you. I won’t stay here. Let me go now and you can forget that I even exist.”

  He shook his head with false sympathy. “I could never forget about you–you’re part of my research whether you like it or not. I’m getting older, and I’m running out of time. I need to study you now … to understand precisely how my Athena compound has altered your DNA.”

  “I’m not one of your subjects.”

  “You have no choice in the matter. You must understand, I’ve devoted my entire life to this research. If I could only go back in time, I’d give the Athena compound exclusively to pregnant women and devote years of study to second generation subjects.”

  Caledonia was horrified. “You’d give it to pregnant women … at the cost of their sanity? No one would agree to that! The university was right to stop your research!”

  He leaned forward in his chair. “I fund myself now. And no one can stop me! The Athena project will succeed! I will be remembered for improving all of mankind. You,” he pointed a bony finger at her, “should consider the greater good!”

  She could see his fervor and feel his burning desire for vindication. Like an obsessive captain Ahab, he was driven, unable to admit defeat, and pushing forward against all codes of ethics and human decency.

  “You’re insane,” she said quietly.

  Again, he chose to ignore her, lamenting, “It’s a shame that I didn’t discover your existence earlier. There’s a certain amount of brain … plasticity … that is lost with age. If only I had raised you as my own. With both of your parents’ exposure your gift must be strong indeed. I look forward to learning exactly what you’re capable of.”

  He smiled to himself at the prospect, and Caledonia shuddered. She remembered how afraid her parents were of him, and silently thanked them for hiding her away as long as they did. The magnitude of their sacrifice was just beginning to dawn upon her.

  “David and Jenny must have developed a method to cope with the hallucinations.” He shook his head in admiration. “They really were the cleverest of subjects … Did they have some kind of system? How did they manage it?”

  “Love,” she said quietly, remembering their tenderness with each other. “It’s called love.”

  He coc
ked an eyebrow. “Whatever it was, it’s fascinating to know that they were able to survive as long as they did.” He spoke to himself like he forgot she was in the room. “Perhaps I should start pairing up test subjects from now on.”

  Her eyes flew open, and she looked at her teacup in horror.

  He laughed, “Not you, silly! The latest manifestation of the Athena compound is currently being administered to primates under highly controlled conditions in my private laboratory. Once I perfect the formula I’ll show everyone how wrong they were!” He leaned forward. “I’m on the verge of a real breakthrough!”

  “That’s what you said eighteen years ago.”

  He flashed a tight smile. “Dinner will be served in exactly two hours. The twins can tell you all about our house rules. I’m sure you’ll be very happy here.”

  “You can’t keep me here,” she said.

  He nodded towards Max. “Take her to her room.”

  She stood, and with a final look at Professor Reed, she walked out, pausing to listen when he called after her.

  “Oh, and Caledonia, your attire today is entirely unacceptable. Now that you’re living with us, you’ll be expected to take care with your appearance. If you refuse to change into some proper clothes for dinner, I’m afraid I’ll have to send Max in to dress you.”

  She turned back to see that he meant what he said. Max was smirking at her, and she wondered if he was the one who’d put her into the nightgown. Her stomach twisted as she was escorted back down the hallway to her opulent little prison cell.

  Max pushed her back into the room more roughly than necessary.

  “Be ready for dinner at eight,” he said, slamming the door.

  ~

  Chapter Twenty-One

  DEFIANCE