Disclaimer: I do not own the Suite life Series.
Report to internal memory of the Human Experimentation Unit and ship's database:
Escaped subject two and clone have been located. Body scans show both to be in a semi-conscious state. Their slowed breathing is within safe limits for their specie. No major deformities have been detected. Subject two tagged "Cody" has a scar on his head. There's evidence of minor blood loss but it has ceased. There is discoloration around his neural implant on his neck and spine.
Site of injuries suggests probable location and removal of mental control band and connector circuits between the two devices. Evidence found in main hallways strengthens this idea.
Both test subjects seem to be in the same state as before...
However, the clone designated "Zack" has an arm on top of subject two
This is unanticipated and will marked for followup.
Body scans detect the clone approaching consciousness. Going to surveillance mode.
...
"Zack's" eyes opened and he stretched, His eyes clear as he stared at the form in front of his face. He pushed himself into a sitting position and examined it from head to toe then himself. He poked the body in the back. "Zack" watches as it twitches only to settle down. Zack's interest increases as the device on the other's neck catches his eyes.
He touches it. The device is set in the middle of the back where spine is located. It wraps around the base of the neck and stretches for one foot down the back. he pulls back as the form jerks again.
"So I guess it did really happen and...I did meet "Cody""
"Zack" laid back on the floor and stretched to his fullest length and stared at the ceiling. His sight lost in the shifting blues of the tunnel. Zack sat up and turned to touch Cody's shoulder. He was warm.
"Hey Cody, wake up." A groan reached his ears, but Zack was not going to be denied. So he shook the other boy. Cody turned over to face Zack. His eyes did not. They held the floor below them, memorized by the swirling shades of blue surrounding them. Until he looked up and Zack's mouth dropped opened.
"You look horrible. What happened?" There was silence as Cody's eyes kept looking away from Zack. But the evidence was plain to see.
Sunken reddened eyes stood out against patchy skin. Teeth bit down on beaten lips. The surviving flesh struggles under the crushing teeth. Shiny streaks split his left cheeks into thirds while the right side of his face was wet. Water dripping down his chin.
"Nothing. I just could not sleep well." Cody's mumbled words dragged their way to "Zack".
"No, you were crying." Cody's shoulders buckled at the direct hit. His mouth swallowed his bottom lip as "Zack' watched sweat run down Cody's scarred naked head to join their cousins on his face.
"Zack" gently grabbed Cody's arms but Cody flinched and pulled away. Their link broke as Cody backed away, his eyes digging holes into "Zack".
Seconds disappeared as Zack looked dumbfounded.
"Mysterious, isn't it?" Both boys froze at the voice. They stared at each other until they turned toward the panel on the opposite wall. The dome on the its face started to glow a stream of light toform a head. It floated in the air, bare and featureless. No eyebrows or hair. The light spheres and the surrounding darkness form the eyes. It looked more like a ghost or a misshapened mask more than a human head. Its thin mouth stayed closed as the human looked through it to the panel behind the light show. Both humans were pale, unconsciously moving toward each other.
"Curious reaction..."
The head's mouth moved efficiently while the boys looked at each other, then watched the holohead stare back.
"What are you? The holohead's "eyes" closed as the light spheres disappeared before responding to Cody's question.
"My identification is Human Experimentation Unit or HEU. I was created to help in the process of understanding human beings." Cody looked between Zack and HEU before answering slowly
"So...your function is to know us then?" HEU was direct.
"Correct. My creators needed my assistance for her project and thus I was programmed to serve that purpose..."
"Wait!" Zack interrupted HEU, who only looked at the other flesh and blood life form with his face showing nothing as Zack continued. " I know you, I remember you." Cody stared at Zack in shock who ignored it. "Zaka, that person mentioned you two times when she came to see me.
Cody reached in to get his attention, but HEU spoke first.
"I know she did. I heard Dr. Zaka talk to you." Zack and Cody did not respond so he continued. "My programming has given me access to the audio and visual security recordings. With complete access to the human sector.
"The human sector?"The confusion and curiousness would be obvious to a human. But HEU wasn't. The words still fell in the form of a question so he knew he was expected to answer it.
"Its the area we deal with the human experimentation" His answer was so flat, so calculable but his audience's response was not.
"Human Experimentation!" "Zack" stepped back as Cody raged. HEU did not notice it as he mimicked a human face speaking.
"Yes, We test on humans to observe and understand humans. Its essential." Cody took offense.
"What do you mean, essential?!" Cody's anger was caged, but here was no lock to the prison. Only his need to know kept it contained while HEU answered him.
"We needed to know why human being act like you do. You are irrational and combative, yet you exist. My creators do not understand you. They want to understand you."
"I don't understand why you did it." "Zack's" comment drew a response from HEU, who continued to look at a reddened Cody.
"My creators decided information gathering would be easier to control by creating human in contained situations." Cody spoke up loudly.
"Yeah right, I don't believe you. I mean you could have talked to us."
"Are you sure, Subject two? Your body giving off signs you do believe me." Cody paled but said nothing. HEU continued.
"See..." A holographic image appeared next to his head. An outline of a human with yellow, red, orange even blue and purple coloring the image completely. The colors changing slightly every second. This is an image of you subject two. We discovered humans give off certain signs when they lie. Including their body."
Cody tried to respond but failed. Zack asked the obvious question.
"How do you he's lying?" HEU would have smirked if he could at the clone's question. But his programming did not have that function.
"These maintenance tunnels you are in are special. You already know they are self-lighted due to the materials they are constructed with. Power is added to aid in maintenance and other functions. This section has life form scanners embedded in the walls themselves. For safety and security reasons, of course. For example..."
Nothing happened at first. Then...
"Zack" turned at "Cody's' shout. His eyes widened as a beam of light rose from his feet to his legs then his stomach...Something was showing under his skin. It or they were white.
"Its his skeleton. You have one too. Look down. "Zack did as HEU suggested. The light was rising to his hips now. A skeleton looking like "Cody's" showed itself. "Zack" looked toward "Cody" only to freeze as "Cody" started to tremble. But HEU's mechanical voice broke through to him.
"You know its true, Subject two. I heard Dr. Zaka tell you as you were hanging in the lab cell. I heard everything she said. "
"Zack" watched as "Cody" breathed heavier. He turned toward HEU and faced him.
"Stop it!" HEU looked at him.
"Why? His own body is telling me he knows its true. Look at him." "Zack" tore himself away from HEU to find Cody on his knees, his eyes unfocused, his fingers digging graves in his forehead.
"Cody...?" "Zack" moved closer to Cody only to stop as sounds left Cody's mouth. Words. The voice leached of feeling.
"Its true. Its true."
"What is?" "Zack's" question echoed around the chamber. "Cody's" hands slid from his skull to his sides lifelessly before he spoke.
"Everything...all this..us...you." "Zack" stared at "Cody" as he found himself in front of "Cody", unable to comprehend "Cody's" broken words.
"What do you mean?" "Cody" could not look at "Zack" even as he continued his questioning, "I dont understand, Cody".
"Cody's" voice was dead but tears dripped onto the floor, a puddle coated his knees.
"I thought this was not real. I denied it. I lied to myself."
"Cody's " hand touched the base of his neck and a shiver shook his whole body. He wrapped his arms around himself as he stood up.
"Zack" winced at the pain etched on "Cody's" face even as the tears dried up. Cody recoiled at Zack's touch as the hand gripped his arm. "Cody" ignored "Zack" as he wiped his face and his feet pounded a path toward HEU's holohead.
Cody's voice changed. A jumpstart to its emotional batteries broke through his mental blizzard.
"It never any sense to me. None of it. It felt the most horrible nightmare. But I could not wake up." "Cody" grazed the scar on his forehead, his fingertips running over his hairless skull. Reality as he knew it filled his words. "I felt sadness and pain. That's all there was. I died after that." Cody stopped and looked up. He was directly in front of HEU's holo projection. Flesh and blood inches from light particles. The projection's glow distorted Cody's skin color as Cody spoke.
" I have one question for you...Why?" HEU looked at the test subject shaking in front of his projection.
"What are you asking about?" "Cody" answered HEU's counter immediately.
"What you did to me...us." Cody's eyes swerved in the direction of Zack but his head never turned.
" I only acted according to my instructions from my masters."
"Really?" "Cody" tried to laugh but it evolved into a sad smile. "Then why did you and your masters have to screw with us the way you had. Cody's voice rose. You are monsters, You treat us like some wild animals then get rid of us like we are nothing."
"That simulation is sick. You create whole lives just to get information." Acid dripped from Cody's words but he did not stop. Not even as he stuttered.
"I..I..I even remembered everyone I knew in my life. My mom. My dad. " Cody paused as he tried to regain control. "My brother."
HEU interrupted Cody. "They never existed."
"Cody" shouted back, his rage filling his body. Eyes popping out of his skull, saliva shooting from his mouth. An animal more than a human.
"They existed to me! Their faces, their voices, their love! Everything!" "Cody" did not see "Zack's" fearful expression as he crumbled to the floor. "And now..."
"Zack" watched as "Cody" flattened himself on the floor. Zack moved toward Cody's trembling body and grabbed around the waist and lifted him up to his feet.
"Its okay, Cody. It'll be fine." Zack's soft words reached Cody's mind. "Cody's" face turned to look at "Zack", who froze as "Cody" looked at him. Time stood still as HEU programming whirled about the possibilities.
"Zack" is shoved to the ground. As he recovers, he pushes himself off the ground, only to find himself staring at "Cody's" livid fire engine red face.
"Dont touch me" The venom paralyzed "Zack." Except for the section of his mind tied to his mouth.
"Why?...I was trying to help you." Cody rejected his comeback only fire back with both barrels, full effect.
"I can't stand to look you. You cause my worst pain." "Cody" left "Zack" alone as he turned toward HEU. An elemental force more than a child. "You know I don't what's worse: The simulator or that you created him." Cody's hardness on the male pronoun would have chipped stone. HEU did not seem to notice as he debated with "Cody."
"We created him from you, Cody. We undertook it for scientific reasons. "Cody" jabbed a thumb in Zack's direction, who was still trying to comprehend everything.
"No he was born with what you stole from me. That damned Zaka said it herself. Or whatever Zaka is." HEU focused on the first half of "Cody's" fire.
How can we have stolen something from you if you had no part in the decision in the first place? That implies rights, which you had none. " "Cody" answers back with vehemence
"Why not? I'm human." HEU answered with a flesh and blood touch.
How do you know you're human since you have never been to your home world?" "Cody" matched HEU with witty questions of his own.
"Well you had to get the information for the beginning sims from somewhere? And you wanted to get the correct information on us, so you would have to go to the source, right?"
HEU was silent on answering. Cody did it for him.
"I'll take your silence as a yes." Cody was calm, even cocky. But HEU used his vocal processor to respond.
"I must admit you projected a lot further than the other test subjects..." Cody's irritation resurfaced.
"I'm not a test subject. I am a young human being with everything that comes with it." HEU's response would be accompaned with a snort if he was programmed that way.
Oh...well then. If that's true then according to you why are acting treating your clone like he's nothing?" "Cody" paled as HEU's question hit him, his cockiness faded. Well you have something to figure out then. I will leave you to it." HEU's holohead fell apart as the light beam faded, leaving the two "humans" alone with each other.
...
Sol's furnace was just a heat source in the window as alien eyes stared into it. Far away from any danger to the ship for which their owners' was the head of security for. The star's yellowish shade held no pain for the alien but their species' sight was adapted to a red colored star. The dome's viewing adjusted for this as red tinged the alien's head. Head of Security Lu's vision was not centered on the sight of fusion and heat but on contemplation. He found the blackness of space mirroring his recent internal thoughts. Ones that he did not share with help of the common telepathic link of the other inhabitants.
We are losing too many solar rotations to this phrase. We need to move onto the final phase but Zaka refuses to proceed. She thinks her pet projects will achieve their goals within a reasonable time frame.
We could have easily taken a few from each age group, scan and probe them and recovered the information that way. However, we are draining so many resources in this.
She has to know she's putting the safety of our people at risk. I dont know why Zaka needed to look at these "humans" anyway. According to their own records, they have not even colonized other planets yet.
Still they are advancing. It appears they have the ability to adapt easily in some situations but not in others. Communication is key to their species. It could key to their advancements or their downfall.
I wonder there's something she sees in them...
Lu sat down in his chair and wait for it to confirm to his body as he mused on a rival.
Zaka sees her future in them. A Her advancement.
Does she not realize that a small nuance at the beginning can be dangerous later on if not dealt with?
Instead of dealing with it, she's messing with her precious HEU programming, trying to mimic humans. I wonder if she's been contaminated by the contact? Giving that construct access to the systems is dangerous. Good thing I implanted watcher programs into the surveillance operations.
But these humans are the main issue, I'll deal with Zaka later. Preparations for future actions are needed. Those DNA results look promising. We can easily design something to deal with her pets in case of disaster. And it could be sent to their home world too...
In the end, I will advance and these human beasts' tendencies will seal their fate. We must begin now.
I am really getting a kick out of exploring this. The places it will take you if you let it. Especially you plan on looking something from the outside instead of the inside. Okay please tell what you think so far. Thanks. Until next time.