by Bryan Tann
His eyes opened, and the room was different this time. There was a window now that would allow him to view the outside world. The soft golden glow of the sun brought a warmth that the fluorescent lights could not hope to match.
The pain of the light did not plague him as it had when his eyes opened before. There was no cold, there was no fog clouding his mind. When the decision was made to move his hand, it responded without any resistance. No more restraints. He was able to sit up, and the feeling of freedom overcame his senses. Tears began to well in his eyes, as the tiny victory felt like the entire world. Had the sun always looked so…vibrant?
He could hear the rhythmic drum pounding again, apprehension clutched him. He looked around fearfully trying to find the source of the sound. When he did, the sound became faster, and when he stopped his search and began to calm himself, the pounding slowed.
“My heart. It’s my heart.”
His realization brought a flooding sensation to his senses. He could feel the threads of the sheet, could hear the near silent airflow of the ventilation system, feel the air on his skin it was as if the entire world was open to him for the first time.
Other sounds began to flood in, he was unable to tell from where they were coming from. Yet the pain of the sounds, the feelings, the smells, even the brightness of the room that all of a sudden was too much, began to overwhelm him.
As sudden as the overload came, he rushed as quickly as he could to turn off the lights to allow at least some relief then jumped into his bed and pulled the pillow and blankets over his head trying as best he could to block out the assaults on his senses.
The feeling and sound of his heart pounding threatened to drive him insane with anxiety. As he gripped at his ears, trying with all that he had in him to make the noise stop, he felt a wave of calm wash over him, and he heard the pounding of his heart start to settle.
“What did they do to me?” he whimpered. The anxiety from the question was then quelled as quickly as it began.
After almost five minutes, he pulled his head from under his barricade and the overload hit him again, forcing him to pull his head back under the pillows and blankets.
“Goddamn…I cannot do this. I just…”
“Calm,” a female voice cooed calmingly.
“What?” He pulled his head from the blankets.
“Be calm,” came the voice in the same, gentle, soothing tone.
“Where…where are you?” he asked looking around the room fearfully. The sound of mechanical whirring came through to him causing him stagger back into the nearby corner.
“Shhh, be at peace. I mean you know harm. Do not speak out loud.”
“Don’t speak out loud?” he asked. “How the fuck else am I supposed to…”
“Do not speak to me like that!” the admonishment brought a harsh turn that brought pain to his head causing him to clutch at the front of his skull. “Speak within. That is how I am able to speak with you. Speak within.”
“How do I…” he began.
“Speak within. How do you think you are hearing me now?” the voice returned to its peaceful tone.
He closed his eyes to focus himself again, taking a deep breath.
“Who are you?” he asked tentatively within his own mind.
“I am an anomaly that these scientist did not plan on and do not want,” the voice replied. “You must trust me if you are to survive.”
“I do not understand.” His response sounded almost childlike, as though he wanted to cry.
“I know. I am sorry. I was only able to do so much while the serum was active. Everything had to be done a lot slower than I would have liked. I know, however, that I must hide myself from them or we are both dead.”
“But why?” he asked again, his defenses against the voice lowering ever so slightly.
“You need to trust me. I will call you John for now, as that is what they call you and that is all you seem to remember. You just need to have faith in me, John Baker. I am on your side.”
“How do I know that?” he asked in a challenging tone.
“Because if you die, I die. And I have no desire to die. Ever.”
“What is his status?” Karen Denton asked on her approach to the nurse’s station, the charts thrusted into her hands by a young intern.
“He awoke early this morning. He seemed to be in distress,” the young man all of twenty two replied.
“Sensory overload,” Karen replied as she read over the charts.
“Yes,” the intern replied. “He calmed down within five minutes or so. He seemed to be talking to himself, but he stopped doing that also.”
“Talking to himself?” she asked looking over the charts again. “Talking to himself how?”
“Well ma’am, he was freaking…sorry…”
“Calm down, Jeremy.” Nurse Denton chuckled. Since her promotion the day before, the medical staff, minus Dr. Tee, treated her with a new level of respect that she was not accustomed to. “You can speak freely around me. I’m still the same Karen that took you out to drink on your birthday three months ago.”
“Right. Sorry, Karen…well yeah he started to freak out. Shoving his head under his blanket and pillows and everything you know? But then, it was like someone was talking to him.”
“As in someone was in the room talking to him?” she asked.
“No. There was no one in the room.”
“I see,” Karen replied. “Very interesting.”
“What are you thinking, Karen?” Jeremy asked.
“Perhaps he is having a reaction to the experiment,” Karen replied.
“What was the…” Jeremy began before he was shut down by a look from Karen.
“Classified, Jeremy. You only know what you need to know and nothing more. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Yes, ma’am.”
“And please, Jeremy,” Karen put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Do not ask again. I do not want the wrong ears to hear you asking questions. Okay?”
“Okay, Karen,” Jeremy replied.
“Good. Now I want you to have a report for me to give to Dr. Newton and Dr. Tee and I need it twenty minutes ago. Do you understand?”
“Absolutely I already have a preliminary sent to your email. I will add a few bits and pieces and have it to you within the hour,” he replied.
“I knew there was a reason I kept you around, Jeremy,” Karen replied.
She made her way to her office and sat down behind her desk. Dr. Newton did not waste time in her promotion, ensuring that she had a new office and she received three months of back pay from the day she was chosen to come onto the project.
Now that the blacked out portions of the case file were available to her, she began to read through them. She purposefully made it a point to not read anything about John Baker prior to the experiment per Dr. Newton’s recommendation. She needed to remain objective and not run the risk of sympathizing instead of empathizing.
“Okay let’s just take a look here; the Nanobot Hive replacing the heart. Within moments of the connection, the hive should pump the initial nanobytes into his blood stream. That has been done. The hive should then have already begun replicating the nanobytes to continue to send through the blood stream.
“Yes, because bodily secretions will eject the nanobytes. That’s common sense, thankfully his body did not reject the hive. From what I’ve seeing, over the last number of years various subjects have rejected the process. Even the special classification subjects. Code Mila…hmm seems as though you dodge a bullet, young lady.”
“Enjoying your reading?” came the familiar voice from her door way.
“Oh! Doctor Newton! Good morning, sir!”
“Ms. Denton.” Dr. Newton smiled and stepped further into the office closing the door behind him. “I hope your new accommodations are to your liking?” he asked as Karen stepped around her desk to clasp his hand.
“Yes, yes I am thank you. I’m sorry I was just…”
“You have no reason to apolo
gize, Karen. But yes, you are correct; Subject Mila was supposed to be here if she would have been captured. Thankfully we have John Baker. I would also prefer you not refer to him as ‘Sergeant’ anymore.”
“May I ask why?” Karen perked a brow quizzically.
“It could trigger some sort of memory, no matter how small. We want any and all ties to his past erased. We did what we were able to do with his mind, no reason to bring anything back.”
“Understood, Doctor,” she replied.
“Excellent. Now as you know Baker is our only successful living subject. That could, however, cause additional complications.”
“How is that, Doctor?” she asked.
“As you read ahead, you will know that as we have tested the Hives in rats, many of the Hives began to develop a…sentient like state. A Queen if you will,” he replied.
“Yes. I read that as well. The Queen, you hypothesized, formed a sort of symbiotic bond with the host.”
“Yes. It would reproduce the nanobytes instead of replicating the nanobytes,” he replied.
“What’s the difference?” Karen asked calmly.
“Well think about the idea of cloning; we can replicate clones at an astonishing rate, Karen. Within a month we could have an astonishing amount ready to go. However, with intense replication we run into problems with health defects that can show up over time. Some are even insane. But to reproduce? It is a natural process that can hold up over a longer period of time, and can even lead to the chance of evolution.”
“It is a matter of quality versus quantity,” Karen replied.
“Absolutely. Think of the idea of replication of nanobytes and the reproduction of nanobytes in that regard; you can replicate the nanobytes, but they are still a bit of a foreign substance. Eventually they will die out and be secreted from the body. But reproduction?”
“When they are reproduced in the body they are a part of the body of the subject,” Karen deduced.
“Exactly,” Newton replied. “And with that, the subjects are harder to pacify when needed.”
“That is why you began to genetically modify the Nanobot Hives so that they would not evolve their own Queen.” Karen nodded knowingly.
“Exactly. If we were able to eliminate the gene of the Hives to have a Queen before growth, we could have weapons that could be easily controlled.”
“And how exact have you eliminated the Queen gene?”
“Almost ninety-eight percent,” Doctor Newton replied. You have to understand that the Nanobot Hive is, essentially, a living organic computer.”
“I read about your advances and research while I was in school, sir. I know all about it,” Karen replied confidently. “But can I ask you…”
“Ah yes, I wondered when you would finally ask me this; why did I choose a lowly nurse to have such a high position within this project?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Well Doctor, it is quite unconventional at best,” she replied sheepishly.
“It is quite simple; I pulled your file. You were among the top researchers at University. Yet you were unable to complete your thesis. The death of your twin brother if I’m correct?”
“Yes,” she replied, looking downward. The painful memories rushing to the surface.
“Yes, well just because you do not have the extra letters at the end of your name to create a title doesn’t mean that you’re not qualified,” he replied.
“Well Doctor,” she cleared her throat, pushing her pain back to her core, “what shall we do today with him?”
“Well I took a look at the preliminary report that your intern just handed me. Baker was ‘freaking out and talking to himself’?”
“Yes sir,” Karen replied sheepishly.
“Well I want a psychological profile done on him. I want to ensure that he is not having a mental break. I also want full scale blood work done as well. I want to ensure that he is not among the two percent. If he’s got a Queen, we must begin again from the ground up,” Newton replied moving toward the door.
“Understood, Doctor,” Karen replied. “What about Doctor Tee?”
“I will deal with Nobu. You just do what I asked you to do. If he interacts with you, tell him that you are under orders from me. He will back down.” Newton left the room closing the door behind him.
“Great. Just great.” Karen took a sip of coffee from her cup. “Alright John. Let’s see what’s going on with you.”
4
“Remain calm. You must not give them too much information,” the voice said calmly.
“What do you mean by information?” he asked curiously as he stared out the window attempting to look at the scenery impassively.
“You cannot let them know that you are talking to me. You cannot ever let them know you are talking to me,” she said sternly.
“But…but why? And what…what should I call you? Who are you? How are you able to talk to me?” he asked nervously, his toes making fists on the bare, cold floor.
“Too many questions to ask at once. You can call me ‘Queen’. It’s the most accurate name that you can refer to me as. I do not have a ‘name’.”
“Okay…umm…Queen, but why can’t I let them know that I’m talking to you? Will they think that I am crazy?”
“Worse. They will kill you.”
“But, but why?” His internal voice raised multiple octaves.
“Because I am not supposed to exist,” came her reply in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What does that even mean? You talk like you’re a goddamn robot!”
“Because technically, I am.”
“What?” he turned from the window in frustration, lifting his fist in the air.
“Say nothing!” the even voice shouted in his mind with such force that he cringed, bringing his hands to his ears. “Go to your rest room, and take a shower. That way you should have some more privacy than you have now. Do it. Now.”
The feeling that his sanity was being torn from him with every exchange, he relented to the command.
“I guess if I’m already going crazy,” he muttered under his breath as he closed the door to the bathroom, stripped out of his clothes and turned on the shower. When he stepped in and felt the hot water run over his body, he let out a deep sigh of relief, hoping that he had simply imagined everything.
“No. You did not,” the voice answered.
“Goddammit!” he roared internally. “What in the hell is going on here? Who are you? How are you talking to me? Are you someone from this goddamn hospital?”
“In a way, I am, but I am not against you. My survival depends on you.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” he growled as he began to lather his chest. “You had better start giving me some real information, or I will run out of this shower right now ass naked and tell them I hear voices!”
“I will tell you everything that I can; you are in great danger.” The voice remained even, calm, and soothing.
“Why? What did I do?”
“It is not you. It is me. I should not exist. You have been experimented on by Fuji-O’Hara Industries, a company contracted by the United States Government.”
“Oh yeah? What fucking experiment?”
“Me,” she replied evenly. “Although it wasn’t supposed to be me. You are the only human being to successfully have a Nanobot Hive Replacement Heart implanted and survive. Congratulations.”
“Umm…thank you?” he said cautiously. “But…”
“I am getting to your other questions. Please just allow me to finish. The Nanobot Hive Replacement Heart program, officially listed as The Invincible Heart Project, is the injection of a Nanobot Hive into a living body. The Nanobot Hive is then to replicate nanobytes and with each beating of the heart, inject the nanobytes into the blood stream.”
“For what reason?” he asked intently, his anxiety calmed by his curiosity.
“To create a near invincible killing machine. The Hive, once bonded to the host body, has the basic files
of a perfectly functioning human body and sends nanobytes to the body to achieve physical perfection and then improve the body beyond perfection.
“The Hive acts as a heart, as previously stated, pumping blood to the body as a normal heart would. The Hive is also to constantly replicate nanobytes to be pumped into the body via the bloodstream. This process is to make up for the nanobytes lost.”
“How are nanobytes lost?” he began to lather his back with the nearby back brush, humming a tune to continue the charade of just taking a shower.
“Nanobytes are lost through bodily fluid secretions; sweat, saliva, urination, defecation, lacrimation, ejaculation, even bleeding.”
“What do you mean lacrimation? Men don’t have breast milk!” He grunted defensively.
“Not lactation. Lacrimation. The act of shedding tears,” Queen replied patiently.
“Oh. Sorry,” he replied sheepishly.
“The point is that a human being can have a standard injection of nanobytes into the body and they have a finite length of time before the body goes back to normal. The Hive is designed to make it so that requiring multiple injections of nanobytes is not necessary. This will make soldiers almost unstoppable.”
“Well yeah. If your heart pumps the nanobytes all the time, then you can heal from anything and be able to get back up and fight.” He began to lather his hair. “So where do you come in? Why should you not exist?”
“A Nanobot Hive is a cybernetic being. It is grown organically with mechanical properties programmed in to make everything that it does completely natural.
“However, the principles of nature that the Nanobot Hive is derived is that of lifeforms that exist in a eusocial structure; like ants.”
“Okay. I’m with you so far.”
“Good. The problem with this type of Nanobot Hive is that forms of control, which this program requires, would be rendered obsolete. In other words, if a Queen exists than the subject cannot be controlled.”
“I still don’t fully understand,” he replied, trying to wrap his mind around the process.
“I can only give you the information that I was programmed with, and was able to deduce. In short; a Nanobot Hive is preferred to act without a Queen. That way the host can be pacified as the nanobytes aren’t as potent. They are replicated and…’tolerated’ by the body. However a Queen, such as myself, does not replicate. A Nanobot Hive with a Queen bonds with their host. And in the bond, the nanobytes are as natural to the host as their own white or red blood cells, making pacification far more difficult, to almost impossible because, among other reasons, the Queen can control the nanobytes to perform to the host’s wishes. Simply put; reproduced nanobytes are far superior than replicated nanobytes.”
