Imperfection
Disclaimer: A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.
"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."
-Michel de Montaigne
"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."
-Seneca
By: VampireQueenAkasha
"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"
-Megatron, RoTF
1984
Main Entry: 2. Something imperfect; a defect or flaw. /im·per·fec·tion (mpr-fkshn).
1984
The Hoover Dam Research Facility was heavily guarded and something was already taking place. There were guards, full armor, powerful shock rifles, and expressions empty and cold. They guarded the lab, listening to the sounds of whirring and machines beeping.
Inside the lab, many screens were flashing and lighting up and doctors were going about their daily routine. There was a large glass pen that housed a young, ten year old girl. She was lying sleeping on a bed inside and seemed particularly peaceful. Her short white hair had fallen over her eyes that had horrible scars resembling tears. She was wearing nothing but a white suit and on her wrist was the tattoo of a Roman numeral 7.
Two doctors walked into the room, smiling. The younger one, Dr. Ashfield, beamed. He was enthusiastic about the accomplishment. His friend, an older and more mature scientist stood beside him, also smiling. His tag read Dr. Michaels.
"Has the subject stirred in the last four hours?" Michaels asked, turning to a doctor.
"No, sir." was another doctor's response.
Ashfield knotted his brows and walked over to the glass, knocking it slightly with a single knuckle. The little girl inside stirred a bit and blinked, stretching. He smiled, pleased at the sight.
"How's my little subject?" he asked.
Finally, her violet, pools of eyes opened and she stared at the doctor with a sleepily, irritated look. She stretched and stood up, walking to her bathroom to get herself cleaned up. It was the one place where she had a moment of privacy. Outside of her bathroom, she could hear the doctors
"Excellent, how have her tests come along?" Michaels asked.
"Very well, sir," the doctor replied, "We will be doing some more tests very soon."
The child spent most of her morning reading books and watching television. The doctors took extra care to make sure she learned everything necessary. She could process it all rapidly than what a normal person was capable of. On the television screen, an image of a whale emerged from the ocean water in a breech maneuver. She watched the magnificent sight with amazement, her eyes wide. On the screen, a man appeared.
"This amazing creature is free!"
The girl pondered the word. Freedom.
The doctors watching her decided to put her to the test. "Number seven?" Ashfield questioned, "Tell me what you know about the whale."
She obediently nodded and started speaking. "The whale lies in the kingdom Animalia. It is a part of the class Mammilia and the subclass Eutheria. This subgroup is of mammals consisting of placental animals plus all extinct mammals that are more closely related to living placental like the human than to living marsupials like the kangaroo." she said, "Whales can range in size from the blue whale, the largest animal known to have ever existed or have been recorded in history. It can range from 115 feet and 134 long tons; 150 short tons, to various pygmy species, such as the pygmy sperm whale at 11 feet."
The doctor smiled, impressed. "Excellent!" he said, "And what else?"
She inhaled deeply and spoke her words calmly. "The term whale itself can sometimes refer to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti - also known as the toothed whales. This suborder itself also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga whale." she continued, "The other Cetacean suborder Mysticeti - known as the baleen whales - are filter feeders that eat small organisms caught by straining seawater through a comblike structure found in the mouth called baleen. This suborder includes the blue whale, the humpback whale, the bowhead whale and the minke whale. All Cetacea have forelimbs modified as fins, a tail with horizontal flukes, and nasal openings - blowholes - on top of the head."
"Magnificent!" another doctor said, "Her intelligence exceeds that of a normal 10 year old girl!"
The child looked confused by this. "So I'm not normal?" she questioned.
The two doctors realized their error and shook their heads. They tried to salvage her confusion in another way.
"No. You're better than normal, my dear!" Ashfield explained, "Imagine all of that intelligence, your strength and your agility at such a young age! The world itself would envy you for such skills! You are a treasure!"
She still seemed horribly confused by this. Moments afterward, the girl was taken by Michaels toward the recreational area. She looked up at him curiously.
"Doctor, where does that door go?" she asked, gesturing toward a massive steel door.
Michaels smiled at her. "It's a forbidden place, my dear," he explained, "You must never go there."
"Why?"
"You shouldn't ask so many questions," Michaels said, "Sometimes people don't like so many of them. Sometimes, when we ask so many questions, we may ask the wrong ones. I want you to remember that well, child."
She nodded her head, though the curiosity still remained.
And so did the distant, lost feeling. An emptiness and loneliness that they always pushed aside as if it were nothing. She did hope that maybe one day it would come to an end and she could find her freedom. Maybe some day.
