"Orphans Beloved: "Halloween: The Night She Came Home…"
Summary: Like my Immortal Beloved bits in my Buffyverse stories, these are fragments and short bits, some longer…Just to fiddle with ideas, possibly forming longer tales later.
Disclaimer: No copywrite infringement intended…
(Note: Might keep this one going, we'll see. Anyway…It seems there was yet another "problem" child in the clone mix…)
Part I…
Dyad Institute…Two years before the death of Beth Childs…
Older secured section…Sub-sub-sub level, ultramax secure section…
"Aldous?" Rachel Duncan, newly promoted to overseer of the Dyad Group under Topside Association's Senior Board, eyed her foster guardian and, now, slightly less than equal, Aldous Leekie, who stood beside her in the secure and secret elevator, looking both solemn and anxious in his lab coat, no trace of his usual amusement at a world rather beneath his visionary intellect…
"What is this about? What's so important that I needed to be dragged away from my first early evening at home in weeks?" she glanced about the elevator…
"And what is this elevator doing here? It's not in the building schematics I have."
"No. Officially it doesn't exist, for security reasons. And I'll have to ask you to sign a new confidentiality agreement later, Rachel. The last time I'll be able to order you to do anything…" he smiled, rather fondly. "Congratulations, again…Sincerely."
"Thank you. But, of course I will always regard you as my mentor and seek out your advice." She noted smoothly. "This will make no difference in our relationship, Aldous."
"Of course it will…" he smiled. "But it's what I've labored for for many years. To see you at the helm of the Dyad Group, running this project yourself…The perfect person to do so, with the insight only a subject can have. Truly, Rachel…This is a great triumph for me as well, if I may say so…"
She nodded, instinctively repressing a slight surge of emotion toward him…Daddy…Of sorts.
But no one must be allowed an edge to influence my future decisions. He taught me that as did Dyad.
Though…She had to allow a slight, sincere beam… I know he means it, he does love me. In spite of his own views on the subject…
Anyway, focus on affairs at hand…And I would like to get home…Daniel has something special in mind for tonight…Smile…
"Getting back to why we're here…? And why this whole section is not properly described in the building plans even to top-level staff?"
"Several labs down here have been used for rather dangerous experimentation…Including the one I'm bringing you to…" he put up a hand to her cool stare… "No, there no risk of infection or exposure, anything like that…"
"Though there is a degree of considerable physical and psychological risk…"
…
As they moved off the elevator after he'd used a fingerprint and retinal scan plus id strip to open the door, she eyed the white corridor…Blank doors labelled 1, 2, etc, plus a storage area…Finally one, #10, a rather unusually secure door…More like a vault door, really…A guard in attendance, armed, eyeing Leekie who offered id and was allowed to do yet another retinal and fingerprint scan. A moment later he indicated to Rachel that she should allow the same…She did so, a bit reluctantly.
Even if he assures me we're protected and the "considerable" risk is minimized, I'd rather prefer knowing what we're about to see in here…
Doubtless something to do with Project Leda but…
The vault door opened, sliding aside…
"Airlock…" Leekie noted as they stepped in.
"Airlock? Yet no danger of infection?" she eyed him. "Seems rather wasteful…"
"Just one last measure of security…A chance to contain what might otherwise escape…" he noted. "You'll need this mask and oxygen supply. We deliberately keep the oxygen content reduced in the hallway here, just in case."
"Aldous, just what have you got in here?" she frowned as the pressure equalized and the inner door opened…
"Wait…It's not your white whale? Aldous?" she looked at him. "Do we have Helena? In here?"
"Rachel." He sighed. "I'm afraid that I haven't been at liberty till your promotion to tell you…"
A howl from down the hall…
"That sounds like my feral sister…Well, congrat…" she paused at Aldous' raised hand, his shaking head.
"No, dear…Not Helena…I'm sorry to tell you, there were a few problems in the initial cloning process, after we lost the Duncans and their keys to the original genome, even beyond what you already know. Now, at last, I'm free to tell you…Everything. Sadly, I'm afraid some of it concerns you and the other successfully functional clones…"
"You mean we're going to end up…Like whatever that is?" she looked down the hall. A louder howl, pounding on wall now…
"No…At least I doubt it…There's no reason to think so…" he hurriedly qualified to her growing anxiety…
"But I'm afraid…Rachel…I know about your plans for tonight with Daniel. Only because he wanted advice on how to speak to you after I told him what I was going to tell you…"
"My fertility treatment…" Rachel blinked. "He told you we were going to try…?"
"It's his job as your monitor…But he only told me after I told him what, I'm sorry to have to tell you, now…"
"I can't get pregnant. It's physically impossible, correct?" she eyed him coolly. Affecting a desperate calm…
We were going to plan the nursery again tonight…Oh…I had such hopes for the new treatment…
"Rachel, I am so sorry. If I had known Ethan and Susan had deliberately blocked any chance of pregnancy in the subjects…I swear I would have intervened."
"My parents did this to me? Made me infertile?"
"We believe so…Without the original genome we can't be sure but…" he sighed.
"They wouldn't do that…It must be a mistake…Aldous, you have to recheck."
"Perhaps it wasn't deliberate, Rachel…But the evidence is clear and has been endlessly rechecked. I wouldn't give up till I was sure beyond all doubt."
"I see." She said, quietly…Nodding. "I'm sure you've done all you could, thank you, Aldous."
"Rachel…"
"And you're sure none of us can bear…?"
"None of our monitored subjects can…As for Helena and Sarah, we can't be sure. Helena's had little opportunity to engage in sex that we know of and our track on Sarah has been sporadic at best. We've only occasionally managed to get a photo or police record or a card from her foster mother as per our agreement to keep away."
"A foolish agreement…"
"A unique opportunity to see how one subject performs without monitors…It was a necessary component of the study in any case and Mrs. Sadler's organization made it difficult to consider a standard monitoring arrangement…"
"We should have closer supervision on that one…She's a complete wreck, a petty thief and both abusive and abused."
"Her choices, Rachel…As she would be allowed even with standard monitoring."
"Yet we both know there have been reports over the last years of an addition to the Sadler fam…"
Alarm siren rang…Two guards, heavily armed, emerged from a room down the hall, taking positions…
"Airlock, now!" one turned to Aldous and Rachel, sternly pointing…
Shriek from down the hall, crash of something against door…A fainter scream within…
"Emergency extraction necessary!" the other guard was on his radio. "Send additional support! Prepare to gas containment cell area!"
"Aldous?! What is that in there?!" Rachel turned to Aldous, almost losing composure…
"Poor Eleanor…" he sighed.
"She usually enjoys her bedtime story…"
…