Experiment (3 page)

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 perm
anent 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, the
y 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 transporter, there would be absolutely no evidence left. The body would immediately evaporate.

Once the boy was born howe
ver, 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 an
d 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 i
t 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 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.

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.

This experiment we have been conducting does not comply with our current laws and therefore, based upon your recent behavior we are forced to end the study. It is with great reluctance that
I say this, but you have left us with no other choice. We have monitored you through hidden cameras located throughout your living quarters. We have viewed and studied the mating ritual and natural human interaction and to be honest, although we found much of it fascinating, it was also highly disturbing to us. We viewed the birth of your son and were quite surprised at this unexpected arrival. Your parenting behavior was also quite interesting; especially the mammary secretions as food, and the bonding between parent and offspring.

The childbirth was the deciding factor when it came time to discuss the future of the study. We had not foreseen such a thing.
We reasoned that since we had failed to foresee something of this magnitude, we may miss something even more dangerous in the future. After all, if caught, we face termination ourselves. Had the experiment run its course and proved us right about the potential of natural humans we would have lobbied the government to review our findings. Of course we would have done this anonymously. Unfortunately, it seems the experiment was an abysmal failure. Neither one of you has ever shown any signs of the greatness that is necessary to live in our society.