Sitting up gingerly, the young man gripped the side of the metal table, a metal operating table and for a moment he panicked, questioning why and how he ended up on one. For one this didn't even look like a home, it was a lab.
"What the-?" he exclaimed, relieved that it came out as a gasp than a yell, he for one didn't want to alert whoever may be in the room and he wouldn't want the attention, but it seemed his awakening was expected.
A person in white suddenly appeared, the young man couldn't tell who or what it was, behind the white suit, it was a hazmat suit, what was going on?
"Calm down, you're in shock," it was a man and he quickly took out a syringe filled with blue liquid, grabbed his arm and gave him a shot before the boy had gathered himself enough to resist. Almost instantly, he felt better, something like morphine but without the dizzying effects.
"Who are you?" the young man asked, trying to focus through a haze of warmth, perhaps one of the side effects of the drug.
"Looks like you don't remember a thing, the experiment hasn't killed you thankfully but it's given quite a blow to your Temporal Lobe, your memories are gone," the man said, "I'm a lab tech here, this is the GMRE center in space, just off the edge of Andromeda, this place was established for Genetic Modification Research and Experimentation," still the boy, who apparently was a test subject, could only wonder what this person looked like behind the mask. Noticing this primal curiosity, the man walked over to a table close by and began writing something down while mumbling to himself.
"It seems you have AD," he said returning to the operating table.
"AD?" the young man repeated questioningly, his head cocking to one side.
"Attention Deficiency, your ability to listen is now no more than a 3 year-old's, more similar to a bored cat," the lab tech explained and he carefully and gently pulled out the needles from the subject's arm, who didn't even notice they were there, "Don't worry about it, we have a way around it, for now you better go see Dr. Bard."
"Who is, that?" The man left the subject by the table, busying himself with cleaning and reorganizing the whole room while continuing to write things down on the notebook, the young man had caught a glimpse of what is said, "Experiment success unknown:
Subject alive and well, skills untested.
Side effects include memory loss and AD
Other effects unknown
Changes in ability Unknown
Further observation required
The boy could judge from looking at those few lines that it was report written on him.
"Dr. Bard is the scientist in charge," the tech answered, "He is the one who organized this whole thing, talk to him, he'll be able to tell you more about this than I know about." He walked over and handed a steel panel no bigger than his hand to the young man, it had a screen on it and was surprisingly light for metal. Tapping a few commands on it, a display came up, clearly a map.
"Just take a left from this room, go up the stairs and straight on, that'll be his office."
It seemed the man was going to leave it at that as he gathered up an armful of equipment, suddenly he turned back briefly.
"Oh, you should pay a visit to the room on your right first, you might want to change out of that before meeting him."
The boy looked down and discovered he was wearing nothing but silvery sheets over his body, barely covering all of him, yes, he agreed in his head, it would be nice to change into some clothes.
But what he was more worried about was why he was a test subject in the first place, why he was even in space of the edge of an alien galaxy and where he was going to find something to eat, he could feel his stomach complaining bitterly to him.
The doors made a hissing noise as the hydraulics pulled them open, the old man sat there, behind the desk, turned away from the door as he observed the landscape before him. His office, seemed more of an observatory, where he could stare at the stars for hours and watch nebulas forming from his window. Something he was busy doing at the moment that he didn't notice someone entering the room.
"Dr., Bard?"
A little surprised he snapped out of his observation of space and spun round on the chair, "Emanuel Quinnling, I see that you have made it through the change, how do you feel?"
The young man sat down looking very bewildered, "Confused and a little lost?"
"Ah I see the experiment has taken your memories, here, let me run through what's been going before you underwent the GM," Dr. Bard said taking out a device which he pointed towards what seemed like a simple wall. Immediately, images were projected and it became a screen, Emanuel stared at it in amazement, what century was this again, he wondered to himself.
"Do you, remember anything about the present day, Mr. Quinnling?" The boy shook his head, "Ah, you've forgotten nearly everything, alright, let me ask you then, how old are you?"
Emanuel was a little taken back by the question, of course such basic knowledge yet he had not considered is, not even a hint of curiosity. But no he couldn't help but wonder, what his age should be, he glanced at the vague reflection behind the doctor. In the bleak darkness dotted by spots of light that were stars, he could see himself. A boy no more than a teenager, yet he looked nothing like most adolescent males, he was very skinny, which was a little worrying for him and retained the soft innocent look of a child with the eyes, though they also had elegance and maturity to them, a doe-like gaze. Yet somewhere, noticeable yet hidden in his features, one could clearly tell his gender but only at closer inspection. His hair was particularly strange, a silvery color with light and dark highlights, was this natural, he wondered. He turned back to Dr. Bard who patiently waited for his answer. Glancing one last time at his reflection, he smiled and said, "Sixteen, sir, I should be sixteen."
"Very good," Dr. Bard said, pleased at the boy's confidence, he leaned forward a little, "And what is I told you, we're at war right now?"
Emanuel flinched slightly, taken back by the idea that whoever 'we' were, were fighting in a war, "At, War?"
"Yes, a space war, humans have been fighting an alien race, the Covenant with weapon technology far superior than out own. They've set out since 2525 to destroy all humans, yes Emanuel you are in the 26th century, living and breathing in it." The screen switched and now they were both staring into images of alien worlds, new faster-than-light technology and alien life that Emanuel couldn't remember seeing.
But it is far from peaceful, the war has affected many, not just soldiers but civilians, already colonies in different galaxies and worlds have collapsed because of the covenant," Bard paused as he changed the pictures on screen, they revealed high resolution photos of cities falling, burning down and mass destruction on multiple levels, Emanuel turned to see the old man staring at the images sadly, "We're facing extinction." The screen turned off and the lights were back on. Dr. Bard turned on his chair as he shuffled back over behind his desk wordlessly.
"But what does this have to do with me? I'm just one guy," the young man asked summoning up his courage, he feared breaking the silence with such a question would be a wrong move, the old man already looked upset without needing him to sound like an idiot, but he needed to know.
"You-" Dr. Bard began to say, suddenly his answer was interrupted by the wailing of sirens, bellowing outside the room. Soon people could be heard running around outside shouting random things to each other, panic was ripping through the building all of a sudden.
"What's going on?"
"We're in danger, I know it!"
"That can't be!"
"Are we under attack?"
"Goodness, I had a feeling this would happen one day, it seems we are found to be intruders," Dr. Bard sighed as he got up from his chair. Emanuel, silently mimicked the move, not knowing what was happening but had a feeling that it would be best for him to follow. He rose as well, following the old man to the door. Just as they were within a few feet of the steel doors, it opened and a soldier rushed in, surprising Emanuel. His armor was like nothing he'd seen or remembered seeing before, it was a type of metal yet it didn't seem heavy as iron, in fact, thick as it was, it looked light so that one could run, jump and move freely around without difficulty. He carried a rifle, probably a larger more effective version of a machine gun.
"Speak, fellow, what happened," Dr. Bard said unflinching, the man had to suck in a few breaths before he could respond.
"A Covenant ship has been detected, it is approaching our coordinates, it'll be here in ten minutes we must get you and the other scientists to the evacuation pods!"
"Nonsense," the old man grunted waving the warning away, "This is my home, I'm not leaving. Besides what harm do we pose that they need to destroy us?"
Frustrated the soldier spoke again, "Sir, we received a message from the Covenant, they're here to destroy the center and everyone inside!"
Emanuel looked from the soldier to Dr. Bard, wondering just what would convince the old genius to get to safety. He hoped that age hadn't instilled stubbornness in the scientist, it certainly wouldn't help him in life.
"That's absurd, let me speak with them."
"But, sir!" The soldier cried frantically as the Dr. Bard was off on his way to the Comm room, clearly he had no sense of self-preservation.
The soldier looked to Emanuel, who was still standing silently by the door, "I suggest you make your way to the escape pods immediately," he said giving the same advice he had attempted to give to the old man. Emanuel shook his head, right now, he felt it was more important to follow wherever Dr. Bard was going. Placing more importance in finding out more about his life than saving it, however crazy the idea seemed he wasn't exactly scared for his life at the moment, whatever it was made up of.
Without saying a word, he nodded his head towards the direction in which the Dr. had gone. Assuming that the other man had gotten the idea, Emanuel walked off towards the Comm room, leaving the marine to gape like an idiot.
The man watched as the kid just walked away like nothing happened, fine and dandy. Just how many more of these crazy, suicidal scientists were there in this ship, the man wondered to himself.