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Paths of the Mind by Covie_Lover
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Paths of the Mind: Chapter One-The Birth
Date: 15 January 2005, 6:08 PM
Paths of the Mind: Chapter One-The Birth
ONI specialist scientist Dorsey Smythe walked down the long, metallic hallway, the sound of his boots echoing faintly in the distance. Click. Click. Click. He came to the high security door at the end of the hallway. It was large, deeply embedded into the surrounding walls, about two feet thick, and the first of two. The material of the door was Tetrasteel, an alloy made, not coincidentally, by ONI. It could resist nearly endless amounts of shock without even denting. In addition, it had such a high melting point that even sustained plasma fire would merely heat it up a bit. In the center of the door were several identification devices, including a retinal scanner, and full handprint and voice analyzers. All of this was complimented by multiple infrared and regular light spectrum cameras controlled by an AI to ensure that no one but the person being identified are present in the hallway.
Dorsey placed his hand in the handprint analyzer. A line of light shined through his fingers as the his hand was scanned. A few seconds later, a small red light at the top handprint analyzer turned green. A monotonous feminine voice said "Please place your eye within a foot of the retinal scanner, and state your name, occupation, and current project."
He complied, putting his eye close to the retinal scanner and said, with as little emotion as possible "Dorsey Smythe, ONI specialist, Cerebral Modification." There was no light this time, but seconds later, the same voice said "Identity Confirmed. Entrance accepted."
The huge Tetrasteel doors opened diagonally, smoothly and quietly, in different directions, creating a diamond-shaped opening just wide enough to admit one person. Dorsey stepped through, and they closed just as silently behind him.
Tina Lehin, Lead Scientist in the Cerebral Modification project, stared disgustedly at the results. Billions of dollar were spent on this project. Billions of dollars that ONI could have used elsewhere, wasted. And not wasted for some thing worthwhile, oh no! Wasted for some silly fools' dream. A false, impossible dream! Why she had even endorsed this project she did not know. One hundred test subjects, all of them grown from zygon to birth in sterile, contained glass habitats, all of their genes tampered with, at the cost of huge amounts of money. And for this. She glared again at the results. Seventy-three of them dead within hours of removal from their glass uterus. Seventeen, alive, but with abnormally low brain activity, in a permanent delta sleep. Five others, also alive, but showing the early signs of mental retardation. Two more, again alive, but with underdeveloped limbs, nothing more than flippers. Finally, three, only three, normally functioning children. Two girls, one boy.
Tina seethed with anger. All that money, for three children. Three children who, for all she knew, would have nothing special about them.
Dorsey, having passed the security door, proceeded to room 32C of the ONI top-secret facility. He had been summoned from his quarters, because the results for his experiment were in. He had an important meeting elsewhere, so was unable to watch his test subjects be removed from their homes of nine months.
He approached the door, featureless except for 32C printed in silver letters slightly above eye level, and placed his hand on another handprint analyzer. The same light flickered through his fingers, and he heard a click as the door unlocked. He opened the door, and walked inside.
Inside was a disheveled-looking Tina Lehin, hair a mess, looking like she hadn't slept in days, sitting in front of small stack of papers. As he walked in, she turn to look at him. When she saw who it was, her look turned hostile. The right side of her mouth twitching, she glared at him.
"Is..is something wrong?" he asked nervously
"Is something wrong?" she she echoed in a whisper, "Is something wrong? Oh no, nothing... except possibly for this!" she continued, the last word a shriek, crumpled up the papers in front of her, and threw them violently at Dorsey.
He caught the wad of paper, and uncrumpled it. He skimmed through the results, and after a minute or two, he looked up and said "What's wrong with this?"
"What's wrong with that?!?" she shrieked, working herself into a rage "I'll tell you what's wrong!! Ninety-seven test subjects, each costing ONI one hundred million, are useless!! Three surviving test subjects!! That is abysmal!! Even the Spartan projects had a better success rate!! And with them, you could tell if anything had worked!! Here, for all we know, these three children could be absolutely normal!! In fact, neural scans show us nothing unusual about them!! Give me one reason why I shouldn't pull funding from this project right now!!"
Dorsey shrank into the corner under the barrage. He winced at the reference to the Spartan projects. When she was done, there was a silence for a half minute, after which he responded "What if they are what we want? Then the billions we spent on this project might be worthwhile. If we drop the project now, we might lose any possibility of success. Maybe something will show up later..." he added hopefully.
Tina glared at him for several moments. Then she said, grudgingly "Alright. I'll extend funding for ten more years. At least this won't cost us as much, even if it fails to show any positive results. Now get out of my sight."
Outside the door, Dorsey sighed with relief. Then winced. This was going to be a long ten years...
I hope you liked the first chapter!
Paths of the Mind: Chapter Two- The First Sign: Cynthia (part of series now)
Date: 27 January 2005, 5:33 PM
Paths of the Mind: Chapter Two- The First Sign: Cynthia
Fourteen months later...
Dorsey walked down the long hallway entrance towards the children's quarters of the ONI complex. It was time for his weekly inspection of their progress. He was forced to do this on his own, as had not been able to acquire any helpers, because everybody thought he was a crackpot . Even he was beginning to think his dream was futile. He sighed sadly.
The three children, Cynthia, Brian, and Sarah, were advancing wonderfully. At a year old, they were already able to think and walk at the level of a nine-year old. They still enjoyed the same things that children of their physical age usually did, however. But a set of mentally advanced children was not what he had specifically wanted. It was a definite advantage, but still not enough to make the experiment successful. Perhaps if they were...
Dorsey sighed again. The first stop of his inspections took place in Cynthia's room. He did enjoy visiting the children, and loved them all dearly, despite the fact that he was supposed to treat them as test subjects, nothing more. The sad thing was that he was almost afraid to discover something unusual about them, because he feared what ONI would do to them in...conditioning. His thoughts turned abruptly to the subjects of the Spartan experiment, and what was done to them. He suppressed a shudder at the thought of that happening to these three innocent children that he loved. But he knew his duty.
He had reached the door to Cynthia room. Like the rest of the doors in this facility, it had a high-security lock. He pressed this palm against the handprint analyzer. After the door opened a few moments later, he went inside.
Meanwhile, almost one-hundred and fifty-seven light-years away, a female Sangheili clothed in deep amber robes stirred fitfully in her bed and began to perspire, her dreams disturbing her. Yet she was unable to awake, so strong a pull did the dreams have on her.
Dorsey ran, excited, out of the child's room. What he had seen might very well prove his project to be a success. He reached, intent on getting to the commlink inside. He pressed his hand against the handprint analyzer in front of the door, barely able to keep still, and it opened moments later. He rushed inside, and contacted Tina Lehin's office. He was greeted by the AI that, among other things, acted as Tina's secretary. "Wadda ya need?" it asked, or rather snapped.
"I need to speak with Tina. And hurry please, it's important!" he replied.
"Sorry, she's at an important meeting, and asked not to be disturbed. Call again later" said the AI, and began to disconnect.
"Wait! It's really important. Really, really important!" he whined desperately, knowing this AI was very irritable, and hated whining.
"Alright, alright, I'll patch her through, just stop whining!" the AI snapped irritably, and transferred him. Shortly afterward, he heard Tina's irritated voice say "What is it? I'm busy."
"I need to see you in Cynthia's room immediately. There's something I have to show you."
There was a short pause. "Alright, I'll there as quickly as possible. This had better be important.", she said, and disconnected.
Waiting outside of Cynthia's room, Dorsey thought over what he had seen. If he was correct in what he had seen, this would be a scientific and, possibly, a military breakthrough. This would mean he would not be seen an idiot (and waste of money) by ONI anymore. He would be heralded as the greatest scientist ONI had ever known and would be showered with praise and-
"HELLO?! Are you there, Dorsey!?" shouted an irritated Tina, standing only two feet away, and Dorsey's thoughts of grandeur were shattered. "I'd like to get back to my meeting as soon as possible! Now what is it you want to show me?"
The dreams of the sleeper became more vivid. She moaned in terror, and began to thrash about, causing a small, ornate pot on a table beside her bed to fall to the floor with a resounding shatter.
Two Unggoy servants rushed in, confused. Seeing the thrashing Sangheili, they frantically tried to wake her. During the struggle, one of the Unggoys' methane breathers was knocked off by the priestess's thrashing, and flew across the room. The Unggoy, barely noticing, quickly suffocated.
And still the priestess did not wake.
The inside of Cynthia's room was filled with neatly stacked toys. Of the three children, Cynthia was the neatest. To right side of the room was a bookshelf, packed with children's books. Hanging above her bed was a mobile featuring kittens. Cynthia was laying on her bed, reading one of the books.
She looked up. "Hi, Dorsey. Who is she?" she inquired, looking at Tina.
"This is Tina. She wants to see that trick you just showed me."
"Oh, that. I don't know why you're is so excited about it. It's not really a trick. Anyone can do it. Can't they?" she asked, confused.
"A trick? That's what you interrupted my meeting for?! Sometimes I wonder about you Dorsey. In fact, I think-" she began angrily
"Wait! She doesn't know what she is doing. She might think it just a trick, but you certainly won't. Trust me. Please." He pleaded.
"Alright, what is it?" she asked, exasperated
The priestess began to scream, and the thrashings became more violent. The remaining Unggoy servant, all reason departed, began to run in circles, also wailing in terror, arms flailing in the air.
"Show Tina that trick, Cynthia" Dorsey requested
"Okay." she replied, and looked up at the kitten mobile. The mobile, which had been slowly rotating in alternating directions, twitched and came to a stop. Then it began to spin in clockwise, first slowly, then with increasing speed.
"W-what?! Oh my god" Tina breathed in awe.
The mobile span faster and faster. Soon it became a blur. Suddenly, the string connecting it to the ceiling snapped. It fell onto the bed.
"Awwww! I broke it! Can you fix it, Dorsey?" Cynthia wailed
With a final bloodcurdling scream, Fera' Tsalmee, the sixth level priestess, jerked awake.
Authors Note: I received comments about the length of my stories. I am slowly trying to work my way out of that writing style because, upon thinking over it, I don't like it either. This chapter is longer than the last one. The next one will be longer. Hope you enjoyed it!
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