Samuel woke up first. The last thing he remembered was a conversation with this "doctor". And then nothing. He felt as if he had changed shape 10 times in a row. Every part of his body ached. He looked beside him and noticed that Adam and Bran were starting to move in their beds. Mimi hadn't been brought back yet. They were no longer in chains but were wearing nothing but patient gowns. Adam cursed as he sat up. His eyes were golden yellow. His wolf was all over the place. Bran said "Control yourself, Adam. It's not time yet." Adam said "I've been pumped full of some silver and aconitum, forgive me if my wolf doesn't appreciate it. "Bran said firmly " Really, it's not time for that, just control your temper for once, Hauptmann!" Adam took a couple of deep breaths and the golden glow went out of his eyes. The men were dressed and sitting on the couch when the door opened, again six heavily armed guards, and three nurses with their hands pointedly in their pockets. The doorway was left open.
The last man was dressed in chef's clothes and carrying some files or papers. The chef sat down at the table and said "I'm sorry about what has been done to you or will be done to you, and there's nothing I can or will do about it, so save your breath. Here are the folders, one for each of you, and in these folders are listed all the food that is on this ship or that I can make. This trip is going to take some time and now you get to choose your own food. Cross out what you don't want or tick off what you do eat. There are also a few lines if you want something off the list. I'll see what I can do about that. It's in your best interest to eat well and keep your strength up. I can promise you that there will never be any drugs in your food or drinks and they are perfectly safe to eat. "Having said this the chef put the folders on the table. he first looked at Adam " You are Project Alpha and you have a red folder," to Bran he said "You are Project Beta and you have a blue folder. And you," He looked meaningfully at Samuel, " You are Project Delta and you have a green folder. And the woman, she's Project Omega and she has a black folder." Samuel said. "This woman, she needs a lot of nourishment. Do you have any clinical nutritional supplements with you? She needs calories and lots of them."
The cook nodded curtly and said "I'll see what I can do. I make all my meals with butter, lard, and cream, so they have calories. You can make your own coffee and tea or hot chocolate, and we have brought you a fridge with drinks." he pointed to a smaller fridge at the other end of the room. The cook stood up and said again. " Please leave the finished folders then with the next dishes and they will go to me." With that said the cook walked away and a moment later two nurses pushed into the room with Mimi in her bed. Once they had the bed locked they left and the door slid silently shut, after a moment there was another clang as Mimi's shackles opened. Samuel got up and went to see Mimi. "They've done it to her again, if I'm smelling right they're trying to destroy her defenses for some reason." The men dressed Mimi again and left her to sleep covered as they began to go through the food folders. After a couple of hours, Mimi started to stir and Bran got up and went to the bedside. " Hey, how are you feeling?" Bran asked.
I replied wearily " Weak and tired, but here I am." as I slowly started to wake up more I noticed that I was dressed again. The men were going through some files and eventually, Adam came over to my side and started asking me what I eat, what I like and what things are my dislikes. I answered as best I could and I didn't even realize the whole food thing yet. It wasn't until I'd been awake for probably three hours. I understood the whole thing. I thought it was strange that they wanted to feed us well and at the same time do experiments. Samuel said flatly " They want us to be useful for as long as possible, hence this luxury nutrition." After a while, the food came again, and again I was fed on his lap. The men left the folders by the dishes as we went to sit on the sofa. Adam held me again as the dishes were retrieved.
We were examined almost every day, sometimes me, sometimes one of the men. The ship always stopped at or approached the harbor as they stunned us all. Usually, while we were in port I was sedated, not quite asleep, tied to the bed while they carried the anesthetized men in and out. Every day when I had a chance I tried to eat. Samuel, Adam, and Bran took care of that. They had some kind of energy drinks that weren't so terribly tasty, but they had the calories I desperately needed.
Samuel had already seen what was done to Mimi after a couple of days. He told his father about it truthfully, without mincing words. They decided to leave Adam out of this conversation because it might make Adam's temper boil over. Samuel told his father how these doctors systematically destroyed Mimi's immune system. How Mimi's susceptibility to infection only increased, Samuel also speculated to his father that the doctors were probably going to test Mimi with various pathogens and possibly antibiotics. Samuel also said that he did not think Mimi could withstand such treatment for long. Samuel and Bran watched Mimi deteriorate. She tried to eat and rest, but the doctors took Mimi away almost every other day. Mimi always came back weaker.
I didn't know what they were really doing to me, I just felt my strength slowly but steadily fading away. The men's temperaments began to surface every now and then and Adam in particular had his work cut out for him. No matter how much I ate, the food in me didn't last long. If I managed to gain a kilo or two somewhere in between then by the next treatment or so it was consumed. One day all the men had been taken away again and I wasn't feeling too well either. My stomach was churning all the time, I was dizzy and aching from time to time. I crawled to the fridge and got a bottle of Coca-Cola, opened it, barely managed to twist it open, took a couple of sips, and walked slowly with the bottle in my hand. Suddenly my stomach cramped and I fell to my knees. The bottle fell to the floor and the soda soaked into the carpet. I threw up in an arc on the floor. I tried to move and the same thing happened again. The whole floor mat was absorbing everything I pushed up from my stomach. I finally managed to crawl to a slightly cleaner spot where I lay down when the door opened. The nurses lifted me onto my bed and didn't even bother to tie me down because I was completely limp, they just tucked me in and put me in a semi-sitting position without saying a word.
They brought the men back into the room, asleep of course, and tied them to the bed. For Adam, one of the nurses said." I think this one has had his last dose. It needs to be changed right here, right now." One of the nurses nodded and left the room for a moment. The two nurses turned Adam onto his side so that his back was exposed. The nurse returned with a small slip of paper, the slip was perhaps the size of a palm and the color of skin. the first nurse poured a gauze pad into the alcohol and began to wipe Adam's back, after a while she felt around for a moment and found the edge, and pulled a similar slip of paper off Adam's back. She waited for Adam's skin to dry and then took a new sheet, removed some sort of protective film from it, and placed the sheet where the previous one had been. She took the remote control in her hand and moved it around, touching the film. " Well, now it's reset again, seven doses again with a leftover." the nurse said to the other. I watched almost behind closed eyes as the patch was absorbed into the skin. "This new transdermal system is very practical." the nurse said to another. One of the nurses just nodded and checked that the patch wasn't felt anywhere, pulled out Adam's gown, and turned Adam onto his back.
The doctor came into the room. "What is this stench?" he asked, disturbed. "'Omega had been vomiting all over the floor,' one of the nurses said. " Well clean it up, change the bloody carpet, there's no one suffering from this smell." the doctor said irritably. " What's the situation with omega now?" " Look for yourself," the nurse said " Pretty much out of it" The doctor glared at me and said " Anyway get that carpet replaced. " Then he walked away. One of the nurses picked up the phone and dialed a number and called. " Maintenance, yeah we have a little carpet replacement operation downstairs for you, yeah it's carpet but if you could cut out, say, that dirty part and replace it with a new one, yeah well good thanks." The nurse hung up the phone and said. "Maintenance will be here in a minute to replace the carpet." One of the nurses looked at me. " Should I tie that one up too?" " Oh no, no need, what's that going to do, throw up on me? Now that's not a threat. Just leave it." Then the nurses left.
I knew that the implant information alone was worth its weight in gold and I tried to save my strength to tell the men. I didn't know how long we had been on this ship. I knew that in one of the upper cabinets, there were pre-made sedation medications for me, in case I was a threat, there were other drugs for sleep and sedation. Now they could be useful if we could get all the men out of implants.
A little while went by, the men still hadn't woken up, when two guys in overalls came in. They were carrying a roll of carpet, lighter in color than the one currently on the floor. They went to the dirty spot and cut it off with a carpet knife. They dissolved the glue on the carpet with some acetone or similar and then transferred it from the underside up onto the plastic. There was a hatch in the floor where the carpet had been cut. One of the men asked. " What is that hatch?" The older man replied " This space used to be an engine room, that's an old service hatch that you could use to empty sewage or ashes or even oil when you got to the harbor. A man could fit in there, but not me." The man laughed and clapped his beer gut. "My uncle used to work on a ship like this and he used to sneak through that hatch to meet girls in the harbor. They didn't appreciate coal runners like that in those days, and they wouldn't have been allowed to leave the ship anyway, but my uncle was a ladies' man and he used to make conquests in every port. You certainly had to crawl down the pipeline to see if he was up to it, but often the invitation of a woman was too much."
I knew that here was an opportunity that would never come along better. At least for men. From what this older man was saying, I knew I wasn't cut out to be a crawler in any tube. My condition can't take it But if we can get the werewolves' implants out they'll get away. I knew this was going to be a tight battle because all three had shown extreme protectiveness toward me. The men put the carpet in place and didn't even glue it properly. Now I would just have to wait for the boys to wake up and tell them everything.
Eventually, the men woke up. I waited for them to wake up properly and said. "Come here, I've got good news and bad news." Adam said, "Give me the bad first." I said, "I'll explain the whole thing first and then I'll tell you later, okay?" and so I told them about the implants, how they are brought out by alcohol. Samuel said thoughtfully. " Hmm transdermal, so they are inside the skin, I could certainly cut the whole skin off, but first everyone has to find it," I told him where Adam had it, and after a while of wiping it with alcohol, they got it off. Bran's and Samuel's implants were also quickly removed. "Then the next step," I said. "I have an escape route, but this is where the bad news comes in, I can't come with you. I really can't, I'm too weak."
Adam looked for a moment and said " Silly me I'll carry you." I smiled wearily and told them about the hatch. Bran and Samuel went to investigate. Adam was sitting on my bed very quietly. He didn't say a word. Finally, he got up and went to look at the hatch. It was going to be a tight fit. Adam was big and strong and would have the tightest of tight spots. Bran said. "I'll go through that pipe, make sure there are no surprises. ' Bran was the smallest and he would be able to move through the pipe the easiest. Bran disappeared down the pipe. After 20 minutes Bran backed up and said. " Here's the way out, I even opened the outside hatch and smelled the fresh air. This is our escape route." Adam asked quietly "What about Mimi?" I said wearily "I told you I wasn't coming with you, now on to the next stage of the escape plan, come here and I'll tell you what I've been thinking."
My plan was simple. We had learned to detect when we were approaching the harbor and it was usually only when we were anchored that the men were stunned. They would escape before then. Contrary to popular belief, werewolves can swim and are strong swimmers. The men would slip away as we approached the harbor and jump into the water, swim to shore, and escape as fast as they could. Before they got off the boat. They'd take some medicine from the top cupboard and drug me into a deep sleep. Samuel had gone through the drugs. There were drugs that worked in different ways, some of which would even cause amnesia. Samuel would come up with a cocktail so that I wouldn't wake up for a couple of days, or if I did, I wouldn't remember anything. I knew that the same doctor who programmed me to kill Nicholas was also on board and there was a chance he could get something out of me. That's why I had to give the men the maximum head start.
Adam couldn't believe his ears. They had to leave Mimi behind. By the way, the plan was quite reasonable and feasible but Adam had always defended and protected women and never abandoned them. Eventually, Adam agreed and the men began to wait. Samuel had already booked the drugs. He advised his father, whose job it would be to give me the drugs, that Adam would go first because he would have the hardest time, then Samuel. Bran would come last and he would be the quickest to go. The ship rocked in a familiar way and I knew that now or never. The men looked out of the window and you could almost sense the excitement. Adam came up to me and said. "I'll look up the name of this ship, I'll somehow arrange to get you out of here, now you just have to hang on, know that I'm here to save you all the time" I replied. " Of course, I'm looking forward to seeing if you can get the marines or the swat in here." I knew my rescue would probably be an attempt. But I didn't have the heart to say that to Adam. Adam said " Goodbye, till we meet again." he walked like a panther to the hatch and slipped in. Samuel came over and squeezed my hand for a moment and said " Hang in there." I nodded. Then Samuel disappeared through the hatch.
Bran pulled the medicine into the syringe. Midazolam first, would cause amnesia and calm Mimi down. Samuel had told him to give 20 mg. Bran injected 30 mg. Bran had struggled with rage all his life. He had helped countless werewolves to accept themselves, but Bran also knew grace. Sometimes the individual just didn't fit the werewolf mold or was too old and no longer in control of their wolf. These would come to Bran and Bran would always take them hunting with him and then return alone. Next up, ketamine. That too Bran put more of what Samuel told him to put in. Finally pentobarbital. This was the one Samuel had warned could paralyze breathing if given too much and was the drug used to kill the animal. Samuel had said no more than 3 ml, enough to keep Mimi in a deep sleep but breathing well and responding to pain. Bran took a 10 ml syringe and filled it up.
He smiled at Mimi. " Ok now here comes the medicine. "Bran said. I felt a tremendous tiredness wash over me and I closed my eyes. Bran took the next medicine, He didn't have much time to put it in as I fell asleep.
Bran pressed the plunger to the base, Mimi sighed deeply and went limp. She was breathing calmly. Bran took the pentobarbital syringe attached it to the cannula and began to slowly press the plunger. He sighed and said, "I'm sorry, now you don't have to suffer anymore, you don't have to be weak anymore, in pain, a guinea pig." The piston had sunk to the bottom as if by itself. Bran discarded the syringes and walked to the hatch, listening to Mimi's breathing become slower, her heartbeat slowing. Bran slipped through the hatch and pulled the lid shut behind him before the heartbeat stopped completely. Bran knew he was doing the right thing. He wasn't going to say anything to Samuel or even Adam.