Fic: Bait, Part Two (PG-13)
Jun. 5th, 2008 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe second and last part. 1,633 words total, when I've been averaging about 350 daily for the story I'm supposed to be writing.
When they came for him again he did not fight. There would be pain, whether he fought or not. Fighting would just bring it sooner. So he turned his face away from Jake, Aori and the rest, and let the guards strip him, before all them.
He did not fight when they strapped him down by wrist and ankle to the stretcher.
He did not fight when the guard pressed a stunner to the base of his neck and fired, leaving him numb from the neck down.
So when he was wheeled into a new part of Mindstrider’s laboratory, and saw the large tank in the center of the room, he could not fight.
“What is that?” he asked softly, while the Varn towered over him and placed the tubes in his arms and chest with a dexterity that always surprised him.
“It is an isolation tank,” she said politely. She was always polite, if a little distant, even as he screamed during her tests. She eased him upward and held him in place, while her smiling little Ferin helper bound his arms behind his back.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Place you within it. Unlike ordinary water, the solution within will numb the nerves of your skin and prevent it from sloughing off from an extended immersion. I will also stop your heart and lungs, and feed you blood oxygen directly into your bloodstream. There will be some weight loss, but I intend to counteract that by feeding you bulk proteins to your stomach directly.” She gestured to the horrific looking black face mask that sat on the table beside him. “The nerves of your eyes will receive minor stimulation from the glow inside your helmet, so there will be no permanent blindness, and electro-stimulation will prevent your muscles from atrophying. You will be in perfect isolation, afloat in a sea of silence and blind light.”
“Please, no,” he begged. “Kill me if you wish, but please do not do that.”
“But I must,” she replied. “It is part of the program.”
“What program?” he cried out. “I’ll tell you anything you want! I’ll do anything you want! Just please, don’t put me in there!”
“But your acquiescence would defeat the purpose of the experiment,” she replied. She gestured to her little ferin helper. “Linlee, the monitor please.” Linlee bowed and unscrolled a display screen in front of his eyes. The varn touched a control at her wrist and a feed from one of the numerous monitor cameras around the cell block began running. Marty could see Jake and Ellayn, speaking low tones that nevertheless were picked up easily by the microphones.
We have to move things up, Jake said. The kid is gonna crack soon.
I can’t infiltrate the security system overnight with the access I’ve got, Ellayn replied. He’ll just have to wait.
Jake's voice changed to a low growl. He was asking for my scalpel when they took him out of isolation last week. You fancy mopping up his cell after he manages to slit his wrists, or wherever the vulps keep their major arteries? I’m not losing anyone else to that varn’s head games.
Ellayn shook his head. I’ll see what I can do.
Mindstrider turned the display off and Linlee rolled it up and stepped away.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “I thought you were learning… learning how to control us.”
“And we are,” she replied. “The whole purpose of this facility is to deliberately provide a place for rebellion to foment, so it can be studied in detail and its typical characteristics identified, so they might be redirected in the early stages, before social harmony can be seriously disrupted. You are a key part of this process.”
“How?”
“You provide a focus for the others. Despite the various social aberrations that have been collected among your fellow test subjects, there was no guarantee that a rebellion would be formed. Self-interest might prevent them from uniting. But among humans and other races, there is often a marked tendency to aid those whom they perceive as being rendered helpless by circumstance. By being made a direct subject of my investigations into your aberrant mental state, you are seen as a victim, someone in need of their help. This gives them a purpose, beyond that of simple escape.”
“You mean… you were just torturing me... to attract everyone’s attention?”
“That would be incorrect. I have received much valuable data on how to neutralize your race’s noted skill at aerospace piloting in my tests of your mental state. But the primary purpose was to provide motivation for your fellow subjects, yes. Otherwise your social crimes would have simply necessitated a short re-education program.”
“I was a victim from the start?”
“Yes,” she said simply.
“But why place me in there?”
“Because, when they rescue you, and find that the isolation has broken your mind, I wish to see if it will break their spirits as well. Rejoice, for in your suffering you will advance the sum of the Dominion’s knowledge, and make the universe a more harmonious place.”
Then she picked up the mask and fitted it over his face and he was blind, his mouth forced shut so he could not scream. He felt a frisson of terror run through him as cold drug entered his veins and he felt his lungs and heart stop. But the blood flowed still, silently through his veins, without even the pounding of his heart in his ears as he was lowered into the tank and sealed away.
The End
When they came for him again he did not fight. There would be pain, whether he fought or not. Fighting would just bring it sooner. So he turned his face away from Jake, Aori and the rest, and let the guards strip him, before all them.
He did not fight when they strapped him down by wrist and ankle to the stretcher.
He did not fight when the guard pressed a stunner to the base of his neck and fired, leaving him numb from the neck down.
So when he was wheeled into a new part of Mindstrider’s laboratory, and saw the large tank in the center of the room, he could not fight.
“What is that?” he asked softly, while the Varn towered over him and placed the tubes in his arms and chest with a dexterity that always surprised him.
“It is an isolation tank,” she said politely. She was always polite, if a little distant, even as he screamed during her tests. She eased him upward and held him in place, while her smiling little Ferin helper bound his arms behind his back.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Place you within it. Unlike ordinary water, the solution within will numb the nerves of your skin and prevent it from sloughing off from an extended immersion. I will also stop your heart and lungs, and feed you blood oxygen directly into your bloodstream. There will be some weight loss, but I intend to counteract that by feeding you bulk proteins to your stomach directly.” She gestured to the horrific looking black face mask that sat on the table beside him. “The nerves of your eyes will receive minor stimulation from the glow inside your helmet, so there will be no permanent blindness, and electro-stimulation will prevent your muscles from atrophying. You will be in perfect isolation, afloat in a sea of silence and blind light.”
“Please, no,” he begged. “Kill me if you wish, but please do not do that.”
“But I must,” she replied. “It is part of the program.”
“What program?” he cried out. “I’ll tell you anything you want! I’ll do anything you want! Just please, don’t put me in there!”
“But your acquiescence would defeat the purpose of the experiment,” she replied. She gestured to her little ferin helper. “Linlee, the monitor please.” Linlee bowed and unscrolled a display screen in front of his eyes. The varn touched a control at her wrist and a feed from one of the numerous monitor cameras around the cell block began running. Marty could see Jake and Ellayn, speaking low tones that nevertheless were picked up easily by the microphones.
We have to move things up, Jake said. The kid is gonna crack soon.
I can’t infiltrate the security system overnight with the access I’ve got, Ellayn replied. He’ll just have to wait.
Jake's voice changed to a low growl. He was asking for my scalpel when they took him out of isolation last week. You fancy mopping up his cell after he manages to slit his wrists, or wherever the vulps keep their major arteries? I’m not losing anyone else to that varn’s head games.
Ellayn shook his head. I’ll see what I can do.
Mindstrider turned the display off and Linlee rolled it up and stepped away.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “I thought you were learning… learning how to control us.”
“And we are,” she replied. “The whole purpose of this facility is to deliberately provide a place for rebellion to foment, so it can be studied in detail and its typical characteristics identified, so they might be redirected in the early stages, before social harmony can be seriously disrupted. You are a key part of this process.”
“How?”
“You provide a focus for the others. Despite the various social aberrations that have been collected among your fellow test subjects, there was no guarantee that a rebellion would be formed. Self-interest might prevent them from uniting. But among humans and other races, there is often a marked tendency to aid those whom they perceive as being rendered helpless by circumstance. By being made a direct subject of my investigations into your aberrant mental state, you are seen as a victim, someone in need of their help. This gives them a purpose, beyond that of simple escape.”
“You mean… you were just torturing me... to attract everyone’s attention?”
“That would be incorrect. I have received much valuable data on how to neutralize your race’s noted skill at aerospace piloting in my tests of your mental state. But the primary purpose was to provide motivation for your fellow subjects, yes. Otherwise your social crimes would have simply necessitated a short re-education program.”
“I was a victim from the start?”
“Yes,” she said simply.
“But why place me in there?”
“Because, when they rescue you, and find that the isolation has broken your mind, I wish to see if it will break their spirits as well. Rejoice, for in your suffering you will advance the sum of the Dominion’s knowledge, and make the universe a more harmonious place.”
Then she picked up the mask and fitted it over his face and he was blind, his mouth forced shut so he could not scream. He felt a frisson of terror run through him as cold drug entered his veins and he felt his lungs and heart stop. But the blood flowed still, silently through his veins, without even the pounding of his heart in his ears as he was lowered into the tank and sealed away.
The End
