BDP
The two guards at the door did not stand at attention, but that did not mean they were not aware. Burke had learned not to be taken in by their seeming inattention, after her first failed escape attempt. The first of several, unfortunately, foiled plans. Moira had been working against the clock, and didn't have time to plan, as she would have liked, taking instead each chance offered. For she knew that once she was far enough along in her pregnancy, escape would be impossible. After she gave birth they had already told her they would take the children from her.
The surge of maternal fury that roiled up through her when Casca had informed her of that fact had surprised her. Moira had never considered herself to be 'Mommy material', and yet the idea of losing her offspring was not acceptable. The feeling was, at least in part, a side effect of the injections they had been giving her. The treatments had changed other things as well, including her speed. As fast as she was becoming, she'd actually managed to break Casca's nose before the orderlies could subdue her.
Moira knew far too much about the project not to understand what was being done to her, and by extension the children. That was the reason for the drugs; they were passing the placental barrier and affecting their development. The fact that she was changing was considered to be an unfortunate side effect.
It certainly made her harder to contain. The third time Burke had escaped, she had nearly made the perimeter thanks to her increased speed and heightened senses. She was getting smarter too. It was arrogant perhaps, to consider one's self highly intelligent, but she knew she always had been. Now it was like some door had opened inside her head, and she was using parts of her mind that had never been accessible before.
"Doctor Burke, it is time," a softly accented voice interrupted her thoughts.
Had Casca left for the day or was it time for her injections? Burke put down the book she had been pretending to read. A glance at the clock on the wall told her it was too soon for her next shot, so Casca must have made another early day of it.
He had been doing that a lot lately. Casca had taken his banishment with ill grace, showing none of the attention and commitment from before. He came in late, left early, and took his anger out on everyone who crossed his path in between.
There was gossip that Casca spent his off time drinking in the village. At first Moira had not believed it, the man was too calculating for such a thing, but she had come to revise her opinion. The smell of alcohol sweating out a person's pores was hard to miss in this climate.
"Thank you Doctor Vargas." Burke looked up at the thin Peruvian doctor who was waiting at the door.
His spectacles had fallen down his nose again, and he was pushing them up with a hand that would have done a concert pianist proud, so long and fine were the fingers. His family was renown for it's weavers, and it was easy to see why. His hair was long, tied back at his neck, and the glossy blue/black that was so prevalent among the employees at the compound.
"How are you feeling today?" Vargas smiled with genuine warmth.
"Unwieldy and irritable with it." Moira pushed out of her chair with less grace than she would have liked and walked to the door.
At least her new cell was relatively comfortable. The room was furnished more like a studio apartment than a prison; it just didn't have any windows. Burke was glad they had made concessions for her advancing pregnancy. She couldn't imagine getting in and out of those atrocious plastic bowl chairs from her first cell these days.
"Well, you are carrying triplets my dear. Best you get used to the change in your center of gravity. It's not going to get better any time soon. My wife made you a brace for your back. She says it will help, and I am thinking it best to agree with her, being a lowly man." Doctor Vargas smiled self-depreciatingly. His wife ruled the house with an iron fist, and he didn't care who knew it.
Dangling from the hand he had just pulled out from behind his back was a strange vest. It had a black background and was cross woven with brilliant greens, yellows, and blues that had been stitched to a heavy cotton canvas. Where each seam would be, there were grommets with black cords.
Moira took it from his hands, ignoring the frowns of the guards. After a few moments of fumbling, she realized it was the local version of a pregnancy corset. There were strips of something stiff yet flexible between the two fabrics. She laced into it, admiring the craftsmanship and thought that had gone into its construction. It made an immediate difference, and she sighed with relief.
"Tell your wife I thank her, from the bottom of my heart." Moira paused with a grin, "And the small of my back."
"You are most welcome," Vargas gave an answering grin.
"So did you get those C.A.T. scans developed? I would be very interested to see just how much activity we're seeing in the neocortex after this latest series of injections." Burke asked casually, just another scientist talking shop. Never mind that it was her own brain that was under discussion.
Whenever Casca was absent from her sessions in the main lab, Moira gave her thoughts and theories to the other researchers. After all, this was her body they were fooling with. It behooved her to take an active interest. The scientists never gave her credit for the ideas or data charts they had chosen to pursue, by unspoken agreement. Casca would never have agreed to the changes in the program if he had known whom they came from.
He would not have trusted Moira's data, and with good reason. Burke definitely had her own agenda. Now four months pregnant with triplets, Moira's jail breaking days were over. She couldn't see her few remaining toes, her center of gravity had shifted, her appetite was through the roof, and running anywhere was out of the question. So she had come up with another, slower, way.
"Yes we did. The results are very promising. I am a little concerned, however, about this proposed subliminal combat training for the unborn children." Vargas had a big family, which made it uncomfortably easy for him to project his feelings into the changes made in the project.
It had been easier for him back when it had been simian test subjects only. The locals ate monkeys, after all. It's hard to feel sorry for your food. Children were another matter entirely, and he never seemed quite comfortable with what they were doing.
Add to that the fact that Vargas had been the department head until Casca's transfer, and he was only a hairsbreadth away from mutiny. All it would take would be a hard shove at the right time. Moira intended to be the one pushing, when the opportune moment showed itself.
"I agree. Perhaps we should push for educational training first. Point out that tactics and planning win out over brute strength every time. Casca should go for it if you put it that way. We can sneak in computer skills under the guise of espionage. No children of mine are going to grow up to be mindless grunts." Moira said softly but firmly.
"I know what you mean. Paolo is forever talking about joining the military, and my wife will hear none of it either." Vargas grinned and shook his head.
"How can any mother blame her? You spend years watching out for them, taking care of them, sacrificing for them, and then they want to run out into danger." Moira shook her head before adding with loving disgust as they walked through the doors to the lab, "Kids."
"Are you talking about Paolo again?" one of the other researchers looked up from his microscope.
"Well, the rascal does lend himself rather handily to conversation," Moira replied as Vargas rolled his eyes.
"That boy will be the death of me. He will join the military despite anything I say, and then my wife will kill me for it." Vargas threw his hands in the air as if saying 'what can I do?'
All present broke out into laughter before converging on the two with their findings.
Doctor Burke was forming more ties with the other scientists each day she was in the lab. Sharing her insights and ideas was only the first part. She also told them bits and pieces of her past, just enough to intrigue them and show her as a fellow researcher and person.
Slowly she was becoming one of them, her intelligence a welcome addition, while Casca remained hated and feared, as he had at her lab. Here he was still an outsider, and she was not. Such a distinction would eventually bear fruit, and she had time now to wait.
In the meantime, the injections were making her stronger, faster, and smarter. After the subliminal training that she would make sure she was part of, she would have the keys to escape. By the time her children were born, Moira wanted to be able to protect them. No matter what. Which meant leaving this research facility and disappearing to somewhere that the four of them could never be found.
The two guards at the door did not stand at attention, but that did not mean they were not aware. Burke had learned not to be taken in by their seeming inattention, after her first failed escape attempt. The first of several, unfortunately, foiled plans. Moira had been working against the clock, and didn't have time to plan, as she would have liked, taking instead each chance offered. For she knew that once she was far enough along in her pregnancy, escape would be impossible. After she gave birth they had already told her they would take the children from her.
The surge of maternal fury that roiled up through her when Casca had informed her of that fact had surprised her. Moira had never considered herself to be 'Mommy material', and yet the idea of losing her offspring was not acceptable. The feeling was, at least in part, a side effect of the injections they had been giving her. The treatments had changed other things as well, including her speed. As fast as she was becoming, she'd actually managed to break Casca's nose before the orderlies could subdue her.
Moira knew far too much about the project not to understand what was being done to her, and by extension the children. That was the reason for the drugs; they were passing the placental barrier and affecting their development. The fact that she was changing was considered to be an unfortunate side effect.
It certainly made her harder to contain. The third time Burke had escaped, she had nearly made the perimeter thanks to her increased speed and heightened senses. She was getting smarter too. It was arrogant perhaps, to consider one's self highly intelligent, but she knew she always had been. Now it was like some door had opened inside her head, and she was using parts of her mind that had never been accessible before.
"Doctor Burke, it is time," a softly accented voice interrupted her thoughts.
Had Casca left for the day or was it time for her injections? Burke put down the book she had been pretending to read. A glance at the clock on the wall told her it was too soon for her next shot, so Casca must have made another early day of it.
He had been doing that a lot lately. Casca had taken his banishment with ill grace, showing none of the attention and commitment from before. He came in late, left early, and took his anger out on everyone who crossed his path in between.
There was gossip that Casca spent his off time drinking in the village. At first Moira had not believed it, the man was too calculating for such a thing, but she had come to revise her opinion. The smell of alcohol sweating out a person's pores was hard to miss in this climate.
"Thank you Doctor Vargas." Burke looked up at the thin Peruvian doctor who was waiting at the door.
His spectacles had fallen down his nose again, and he was pushing them up with a hand that would have done a concert pianist proud, so long and fine were the fingers. His family was renown for it's weavers, and it was easy to see why. His hair was long, tied back at his neck, and the glossy blue/black that was so prevalent among the employees at the compound.
"How are you feeling today?" Vargas smiled with genuine warmth.
"Unwieldy and irritable with it." Moira pushed out of her chair with less grace than she would have liked and walked to the door.
At least her new cell was relatively comfortable. The room was furnished more like a studio apartment than a prison; it just didn't have any windows. Burke was glad they had made concessions for her advancing pregnancy. She couldn't imagine getting in and out of those atrocious plastic bowl chairs from her first cell these days.
"Well, you are carrying triplets my dear. Best you get used to the change in your center of gravity. It's not going to get better any time soon. My wife made you a brace for your back. She says it will help, and I am thinking it best to agree with her, being a lowly man." Doctor Vargas smiled self-depreciatingly. His wife ruled the house with an iron fist, and he didn't care who knew it.
Dangling from the hand he had just pulled out from behind his back was a strange vest. It had a black background and was cross woven with brilliant greens, yellows, and blues that had been stitched to a heavy cotton canvas. Where each seam would be, there were grommets with black cords.
Moira took it from his hands, ignoring the frowns of the guards. After a few moments of fumbling, she realized it was the local version of a pregnancy corset. There were strips of something stiff yet flexible between the two fabrics. She laced into it, admiring the craftsmanship and thought that had gone into its construction. It made an immediate difference, and she sighed with relief.
"Tell your wife I thank her, from the bottom of my heart." Moira paused with a grin, "And the small of my back."
"You are most welcome," Vargas gave an answering grin.
"So did you get those C.A.T. scans developed? I would be very interested to see just how much activity we're seeing in the neocortex after this latest series of injections." Burke asked casually, just another scientist talking shop. Never mind that it was her own brain that was under discussion.
Whenever Casca was absent from her sessions in the main lab, Moira gave her thoughts and theories to the other researchers. After all, this was her body they were fooling with. It behooved her to take an active interest. The scientists never gave her credit for the ideas or data charts they had chosen to pursue, by unspoken agreement. Casca would never have agreed to the changes in the program if he had known whom they came from.
He would not have trusted Moira's data, and with good reason. Burke definitely had her own agenda. Now four months pregnant with triplets, Moira's jail breaking days were over. She couldn't see her few remaining toes, her center of gravity had shifted, her appetite was through the roof, and running anywhere was out of the question. So she had come up with another, slower, way.
"Yes we did. The results are very promising. I am a little concerned, however, about this proposed subliminal combat training for the unborn children." Vargas had a big family, which made it uncomfortably easy for him to project his feelings into the changes made in the project.
It had been easier for him back when it had been simian test subjects only. The locals ate monkeys, after all. It's hard to feel sorry for your food. Children were another matter entirely, and he never seemed quite comfortable with what they were doing.
Add to that the fact that Vargas had been the department head until Casca's transfer, and he was only a hairsbreadth away from mutiny. All it would take would be a hard shove at the right time. Moira intended to be the one pushing, when the opportune moment showed itself.
"I agree. Perhaps we should push for educational training first. Point out that tactics and planning win out over brute strength every time. Casca should go for it if you put it that way. We can sneak in computer skills under the guise of espionage. No children of mine are going to grow up to be mindless grunts." Moira said softly but firmly.
"I know what you mean. Paolo is forever talking about joining the military, and my wife will hear none of it either." Vargas grinned and shook his head.
"How can any mother blame her? You spend years watching out for them, taking care of them, sacrificing for them, and then they want to run out into danger." Moira shook her head before adding with loving disgust as they walked through the doors to the lab, "Kids."
"Are you talking about Paolo again?" one of the other researchers looked up from his microscope.
"Well, the rascal does lend himself rather handily to conversation," Moira replied as Vargas rolled his eyes.
"That boy will be the death of me. He will join the military despite anything I say, and then my wife will kill me for it." Vargas threw his hands in the air as if saying 'what can I do?'
All present broke out into laughter before converging on the two with their findings.
Doctor Burke was forming more ties with the other scientists each day she was in the lab. Sharing her insights and ideas was only the first part. She also told them bits and pieces of her past, just enough to intrigue them and show her as a fellow researcher and person.
Slowly she was becoming one of them, her intelligence a welcome addition, while Casca remained hated and feared, as he had at her lab. Here he was still an outsider, and she was not. Such a distinction would eventually bear fruit, and she had time now to wait.
In the meantime, the injections were making her stronger, faster, and smarter. After the subliminal training that she would make sure she was part of, she would have the keys to escape. By the time her children were born, Moira wanted to be able to protect them. No matter what. Which meant leaving this research facility and disappearing to somewhere that the four of them could never be found.