The Experiment (17 page)

I lined the drill up and pressed the bit against the side of his head…

I could barely hear him whispering “Please, please, please.”

“So if the natives had said please, would you have stopped Horus? What if they could speak and begged? What about then Horus!?”

As I sat there, ready to put him the trough the same horrors countless natives had suffered by his hands I hesitated… I didn’t understand why because this is something I’d been waiting to do for so long. Something I’ve dreamed about…

I couldn’t turn back now, so I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. I could feel it starting to bore into his head and I opened my eyes, taking my finger of the trigger as I did. There was already blood running down the side of his face onto the table…

I looked into his eyes and I could see the same pain and fear I’d been seeing every day… I know it’s exactly what I wanted, but it reminded of the natives and what I was doing here… Why I was killing Horus.

It was because he was an evil man that did exactly what I was doing at this very moment…

I dropped the drill and went over to the other side
of the room…

I wanted to hurt Horus… Not just for the natives but for myself… He really had trained me in his image... What I almost just did proved that… But I didn’t want to be like him… I didn’t want to let all this make me lose myself. That’s exactly what he wanted all along…

I walked back to the table “You know what Horus, even though you deserve for me to do this… I won’t, because then I’ll be just like you; a monster that doesn’t deserve the gift of life.”

This didn’t change the fact that I had to kill him… but I wouldn’t torture him. It isn’t who I am and I never wanted to see myself behave like that again…

I went and sat down at his desk. I looked over all his papers and the notes that I’d been taking… Then I remembered 3… And I had an idea to win his trust. So I walked over and pushed the bookshelf aside and opened the door.

3 frantically stood up “What are you doing here, where’s Horus? What was all that noise and yelling about?”

I looked at him for a moment… “I’m setting you free… And I want you to see something.”

I could see the confusion and concern on his face… So I said “Come on, it’s not a trick.”

3 started to slowly walk towards me.

“I do have a gun so don’t try anything.”

He stopped “Ok what’s going on! Tell me now! Is
this another one of that buffoon’s tests!?”

I softly said “Just come out, I have something to show you… and even more to tell you.”

I walked out and went back over to the table.

3 slowly appeared in the door way and saw Horus lying on the table. I could see the shock and disbelief come over him.

I said “Come here.”

As he approached he said “… What are you doing?”

I looked him in the eyes “A large group of us have decided to take the ship and put a stop to all this… We can’t stand by and allow this to happen any longer. We want to set your people free and we need your help.”

He looked somewhat amused. “My help?”

I pulled out the gun and put it Horus’ head.

“It all starts with his death.”

Then I pulled the trigger.

3 jumped and stepped back. Then he just stared at me… Like he thought I was going to shoot him next.

I raised my left hand to show 3 I wasn’t going to hurt him, slowly put the gun away and told him to take a seat.

I could tell he was scared so I said “Please, you can trust me. We just want to free your people and go home… but like I said, we need your help.”

He continued to stare at me… His body was tensed up, as if he were prepared to react if I tried to kill him.

“Please 3… I just killed Horus… You know I’m telling the truth. Now please sit down so we can talk.”

After a few moments he said “Alright… Not like I actually have a choice in the matter…” and sat down.

I looked over at Horus… The table was covered in blood and it had started running and dripping on the floor... When I shot him, it sprayed blood and pieces of his head all over the wall next him…

I was now a killer just like him... Well not just like him… I was doing the right thing by making it so he could never hurt anyone again. I knew that…

When I sat down across from 3 he said “Is the ship being taken over now?”

“No… We still have work to do before that happens. That’s where you come in.”

I sat there and explained everything. What was going on in the storage rooms, how many natives had been advanced and how many had been killed… I told him our plans and what we needed him to do.

I don’t think he really heard about the plans… He only heard me describe everything Horus had done to his people… I guess he thought there were only a few subjects… Or maybe even that he was the only one…

I could see the hatred and sadness in his eyes.

He jumped up and pointed at me. “How could you people do this to us!?.. You may be trying to fix it now, but how did it ever happen in the first place!?”

I did my best to explain about the ACI, our
government, and how everything works. That a small group of men came up with this idea and tricked us under the guise of saving our world… That they did not in any way represent the people of Aeris.

I could tell he understood what happened… I saw him start to calm down.

“Very well... I suppose even someone like me may have fallen for all that…”

Before I could answer him, he said “So what makes you think they’ll listen to me now that they view all of you as their all-powerful creators?.. Horus gave me books about the history of your world; I know exactly what these types of beliefs do to people.”

“It’ll work; we just need you to learn their language so we can communicate with them. If you can let us know how to explain it to them they’ll have to believe us. And I know you’re smart enough to learn their simple language in matter of hours… Horus told me what you’re capable of.”

He sighed “Well you’re offering me freedom… You’re saving me and risking your life for my people… I’ll help you.”

I stood up and put my hand out.

He looked at it and said “Oh yes, this… One of your customs… You know you’re really just transferring germs and possibly even sickness... It’s a dumb custom; it makes absolutely no sense…”

Then he stood up and shook it.

I laughed “Yeah I suppose so. But it’s what we do to signify friendship and trust…”

3 nodded and looked like he was trying to hold back laughter. “Friendship huh?”

He sighed and said “So what do we do now” with a look of condescension on his face.

“We don’t do anything… You’re going to wait in that room until Kayin and I return. I still have to let him know the plan is a go and wait for him to acquire a transport ship so we can take you down to the first site.”

He looked upset “So you’re locking me back up?.. Yeah nice way to start the relationship…”

I felt bad for him but he was continuously proving himself to be arrogant… and pretty rude…

“Hey come on… I’m giving you your life back. What do you think would have happened when Horus was done with you?.. I don’t care how smart you are. You’re a fool if you even thought for a moment that you’d ever be released.”

I took an aggressive step towards him “Can you please take this seriously? All of our lives are at stake now; we’re in this together. Whether you like it or not, we’re each other’s only hope.”

He put his hands up as if to mock me and said “Alright, alright, my apologies” and went back in the room.

3 was going to be hard to deal with but I couldn’t
blame him for his behavior… While Horus was educating him, he must have inadvertently passed on some of his bad qualities…

The poor guys been locked in a room all this time and his only contact was with a man like Horus. I guess we’re lucky he’s not worse.

I was about to leave when I realized I had to do something with the body… and there was only one place to hide it.

I felt horrible but I had to…

“Hey 3… I hate to tell you this, but I have to hide the body in this room… there’s nowhere else.”

He made another sarcastic face and said “Why am I not surprised?”

“Just deal with it… At least you won’t die in this room alone.”

I didn’t mean to be so harsh but his attitude and totally ungrateful demeanor had me aggravated…

I went over and looked at Horus… There was blood everywhere… Hiding the body won’t help anything. If anyone saw that amount of blood on the floor they’d know he was dead.

Just as I started to walk back over and tell 3 he yelled out “You know there’s blood everywhere, putting the body in here won’t change anything!.. You didn’t think about this beforehand?”

When I walked back over to him I said “I was just coming to tell you that… Give me a break, it’s been a
stressful day… Now hang tight, I’ll be back.”

He said something under his breath and waved me away, so I shut the door and pushed the bookshelf back into place. The best I could do was use Horus’ key to lock the lab behind me… I don’t think anyone from the science team would dare go into his private lab anyway.

It won’t be checked until Neros realizes he’s missing… It could be days or even weeks, there was no way to know. I just knew Kayin and I had to hurry and make this plan happen. We needed to get 3 down to the surface as soon as possible…

As I headed back to find Sara I knew this was it… There was no going back from what I had done. If they find the body I’ll just have to say I snapped and killed him to take away any attention from Kayin’s plans.

The only problem was 3 talking, he knows everything now. Fortunately none of them know he exists and he’ll be down on X-451 by the time anyone discovers Horus’ body. As long as they never found out about 3 the plan would be safe…

When I got close I quickened my pace… Not being able to hide the body only made it so this all had to go even faster than previously planned.

When Sara opened the door I pushed past her and went in.

She said “Atlas what are you doing? What
happened?”

“It’s done… but it didn’t exactly go as planned, his lab is a mess. All I could do is lock it behind me, but if anyone goes in there…”

“Don’t worry Atlas, no one is going in there… Not until after he’s suspected as missing.”

“I know, but that could happen any day… All it takes is for Neros to try and reach him. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. We have to get started as soon as possible… I need you to tell Kayin to have the transport ship waiting and meet me in the usual place as soon as he can.”

She took my hand “Everything’s going to work out… Just concentrate on doing what you need to do and it will all fall into place… We’ll see each other soon…”

As walked to the observation room, I started thinking about Horus. I was glad I didn’t torture him… Or at least I stopped myself before I really started… He suffered, he was terrified, and now he was dead… That was enough for me…

I already had so much to try and forgive myself for. I didn’t want to add mercilessly torturing someone to the list… Even if it was someone like Horus who deserved worse than I could ever do to him…

Although the way I acted really scared me now that I look back on it. For a moment it was like I actually turned into Horus… I still had to kill him, but I could forgive myself for that…

I had no idea how long it would take Kayin to get here but I didn’t care… I didn’t have the ability to keep myself busy in these circumstances; I was too nervous. The observation room was the only thing that could get me through a time like this…

I’ve been on this ship for almost two years now… Most of my free time has been spent in this very room looking down at X-451. When we started taking 3 around to the mining sites it would be my first time going to the surface.

I couldn’t wait to see the oceans, smell the air, and hear the birds. I was so sick of being stuck on the Sirius… Even though for a long time I thought I wanted to live in space… I was wrong. After all this, I think we’d be better off just staying on our own planet and worrying about our own people.

The very first intelligent life we encountered suffered greatly by our hands… I guess you could say our technology and curiosity had outpaced our morality… Maybe as a species, we aren’t ready to introduce ourselves to the rest of the universe yet...

Chapter 11

H
ours went by before Kayin finally showed up… I was so anxious it was driving me crazy. I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t relax. All I could do is frantically pace and think… As soon I heard the door open I was so relieved.

Kayin walked over and stood next to me. Never taking his eyes away from the asirium wall.

“So I take it Horus is dead?”

“Yeah, and the native 3 has agreed to help with our plan… Just be prepared, he’s pretty difficult to deal with…”

Kayin looked confused “What do you mean?”

“Well… He’s really sarcastic and condescending… Don’t expect any gratitude or respect. Horus obviously taught him how to be arrogant.”

Kayin raised a brow “Great…”

“I’m tellin you Kayin… If you talked to him over the radio you’d have no idea he wasn’t one of our people. It’s so strange… You’ll see what I mean.”

“Yeah I guess that would be odd…”

“Just remember, he’s been locked in a room for close to a year and had to deal with Horus every day… Just cut him some slack. I can only imagine what he’s had to endure.”

Kayin rolled his eyes “Yeah well he doesn’t have to treat us badly, we’re trying to help him… You know
what, it doesn’t matter… As long as he does what we need him to do I’ll ignore it. It’s your plan, you can deal with him.”

He sighed. “Doesn’t he realize he’s helping his own people fight against the ones who enslaved them?”

I shrugged and shook my head “I really don’t know what his problem is… All I know is that he’s currently the smartest person in the solar system and we need his help… He has to care what happens to his people. He’ll come through for us, I know it.”

Kayin took a deep breath, and put his hands on his hips.

“Did he suffer?”

I wasn’t about to tell Kayin everything that happened in that room. I could tell he wanted to hear that I tortured Horus but I didn’t feel like talking about it… He was just angry like the rest of us… He still thought hurting someone else would make him feel better, just like I did.