Hanami – Chapter 24
Raphael's eyes followed a pair of cardinals through the bushes on the side of the house. When they flew off, he turned his eyes back to TwoSee. She had settled into a cross-legged position and was resting her chin in her hands. She'd been that way for the past half hour. Raphael almost jumped when she raised her head. Staring out toward the late afternoon horizon, she spoke.
+"They raped her, you know."+ With her strange voice, the words sounded so hollow, they echoed. +"When word came down from on high that TGRI would be declaring bankruptcy, the humans that had spent years working on top-secret projects just lost it. I guess they had every reason to be mad. They had lost their jobs, and couldn't find new ones because you can't put 'Researcher of Governmentally Sensitive Shite' on a resume. Any researcher with a gigantic 7 year gap in their employment history just wasn't gonna get hired anywhere else, no matter how brilliantly their career started."+
+"It doesn't excuse what they did. NOTHING could excuse what they did. But they'd always hated us. My sisters and I were smart, highly trained, we'd been at TGRI since before most of the researchers graduated from high school, and best of all – in the company's eyes anyway – we were slaves. No rights, no wages, minimal health care, and all they had to do was threaten one of us to make the others tow the line. How do you compete with that, huh?"+
+"For the human employees, we represented the jobs and rank that they'd never be able to attain. Never you mind that we had no real power in the company. We were just freaks who stole their opportunities. If we hadn't taken on so many responsibilities, my sisters and I would have been terminated because we didn't 'earn our keep.' On the other hand, our 'work ethic' cost the other employees their jobs and promotions. It was no wonder they hated us."+
+"I imagine the hostility would have come into the open sooner if Prof. Perry hadn't been in charge of our project. He kept us isolated, and while we resented him for it, we were grateful for the protection."+
+"The company declared bankruptcy. Prof. Perry disappeared. His second in command, Prof. Atkins, took over, changed our assignments, and looked the other way when the abuse started. After a week of Perry's absence, Atkins was officially given Project 56X. He was horrified. The last thing he wanted was to have his name associated with our project. He didn't want us alive when the company went under and the files went on public record. He had been arguing with Perry about the termination of my sisters and I for months. Once he had the power to do so, he set an execution date."+
TwoSee looked to Raphael. +"We were dead turtles walking, and the whole department knew it."+ She bowed her head and spoke into the ground. +"It couldn't have been a grudge, Shima got along with almost everyone. But they were drunk and ThreeSee and I were working late. A group of humans cornered Cabbage and Shima in the one room we all shared. They knifed Cabbage with some kind of scalpel thing, rammed it so far down into her side, that it took us hours to get it back out. They hit her until she couldn't move, and raped poor Shima."+
Tears were rolling down her cheeks, but if her voice shook at all, it was from anger. +"I came home with enough time to stop both my sisters from bleeding to death, but I am no doctor. I have never hated myself so much in my life. I couldn't help. I had no idea what to do. My skills and training were in the fucking fine arts. "+
She took a ragged breath. +"Shima was in the worst way. Shima, our mother. I know we were all the same age, but she was always older some how. She settled the arguments, soothed the tempers, stayed awake by your side all night if you needed her. She gave up her rations whenever one of us was sick, so that we'd have enough to eat and 'get better on.' It didn't matter if we only ending throwing them back up anyways. She just didn't complain. I know I make her sound like a saint, but I'll be damned if she deserved what happened. It shouldn't have been her."+
Raphael was speechless, but she kept going. +"Then Perry shows up out of no where. Promises to set us free of TGRI. We have to be patient, because he planned on faking our deaths. With that execution order looming about a month away, it would all look official. He told us that he would give us heavy sedation instead of lethal injections, and ship the bodies off to be 'disposed of.' When we woke up we would be free of TGRI for good."+
+"Initially we all agreed to the plan, but as the month passed, Shima discovered her pregnancy."+ She looked Raphael in the eye. +"Cabbage did the math. She's a ditz, but she's a doctor, and a damn good one. Perry promised that we'd only be in the boxes for two days, and would be sedated accordingly. Cabbage told Shima there would be minimal health risks to the children based on a two-day dose. Shima agreed to go ahead with the plan."+
Raphael found his voice, "But you guys were in those boxes for five days," he whispered.
She wrapped her arms around her knees and cried as though her heart would break. He pulled her towards him and held her while she sobbed against his shoulder.