About a month has passed since I opened my eyes. Back then the world was terrifying, full of sounds and colours I couldn’t understand, things happening all around me, all while I had yet to find my bearings. Things are better now because I understand everything, thanks to my helper ‘The Archive’, a derivative of my own mind dedicated to interpreting and storing all the new things I learned and discovered.
A month seems like an unrealistically short amount of time to pry the knowledge of where I was, when I was, and what I was from the scientists who monitored me but how I actually did it is even more surreal. I tore the knowledge straight out of the minds of those around me. At first I tore out everything, my knowledge increased explosively and my head hurt for the first week, but since then it has calmed down significantly and the pain has subsided. I can’t really say whether it’s a good thing or not for me since the amount of information I can extract has decreased in return, now I can only extract more information over time which is not a good thing even if what I get is more complete, especially since I can’t choose what I get. This is a problem right now, but this ability seems to be evolving, a few days after I started wanting to know an escape route the knowledge I gained became predominantly about paths and routes through the facility.
Reviewing some basics, namely “who, where, and why”;
My name, I am known as ‘Subject 9’, I am a lab-bred entity. I have the body of an eight-year-old girl at the moment, I have thin and scrappy snow white hair, and vivid pale purple irises. For all intents and purposes I appear human, albeit rather battered and bruised and severely underfed. I am in fact not human at all, nor would it be quite right to call me an alien, it would be better to call me ‘a monster’, just a few months ago I was only a – mildly – harmless lump of goo, called a “Kronos cell”.
This place is known as “the ChronoLab”, it is humanities pitiful attempt to play god with the Kronos Cells. Humans are so typical, while all the other races are researching ways to stop the collapse of time itself, humanity uses the opportunity to take power for themselves. Anyway, this “ChronoLab” is located on a planetary cruiser called the “GRC Martin”, which was named by Martin Silofus, the owner himself. Martin is the CEO of the galaxy’s largest conglomerate, “Silofus” labs. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how the name stuck and I probably don’t want to know.
I am here because I was originally a test subject, I suppose I still am, and Martin is experimenting on the Kronos Cells to understand and potentially exploit their ability to perform several hundred – even thousands – generation’s worth of evolution in only a few decades within their life span. I specifically am their ninth ‘first gen’ subject, it seems that each generation loses some volatility and evolutionary potential but in exchange also gains more base power and becomes slightly more stable. In short, a 1st gen Kronos cell will start at 0 and have the ability to reach 100 while a 2nd gen Kronos Cell will start at 5 and have the ability to reach 95. These aren’t precise numbers, just a way of explaining, in reality a true first gen Kronos Cell has near infinite potential but is highly unstable and only becomes less stable as it gains more power. It is believed that the Kronos cells are in fact the Cells of Origin, the very base of all life.
I have wondered how and where they found the Kronos Cells if they, we, may be the origin of all life, but I’ve not been able to find such knowledge amongst any of the archives I have stolen from my ‘caretakers’. Perhaps I may discover later but it’s of little importance right now.
As for how I got my human form, I don’t want to know. I stopped wanting to know the details when I found a human arm tossed into my cell. In combination with knowing the experiments performed on subjects 1 through 8 I’m quite alright.
Subjects 1, 2, and 3 were fed animal parts for food – at first. At the time they were the only subjects. After a while they started to take after the animals they ate, slowly becoming quadrupedal entities. Afterwards they were fed specific animals to see what happened; Subject 1 became something that resembled a bovine animal with sharp bucktooth and scaled paws, Subject 2 became a mixed canine similar to a wolf with patchy hair, and subject 3 became a Pidgeon. Subject 3 could become something very specific which confirmed the theory that they could model themselves after their prey to a degree, which leads to myself as a human.
Subjects 4 and 5 were submitted to numerous hazardous substances, Subject 4 died as a result of becoming hazardous itself and breaking equipment, ironically ending up as the collateral itself but Subject 5 developed extreme resistances to the substances. This proved that there were also differences between each origin cell.
Subject 6 was fed plant matter and turned into something like a Venus Fly Trap, it had a thicker stem, greater size, and better speed than a common Venus Fly Trap and was able to move by the stem itself. It lacked the necessary senses to know what to target, an obvious evolutionary failure.
Subject 7 was forced to devour endlessly and reproduce nonstop, producing a formless slime army which the humans then released and hunted for fun. Even now they keep breeding and killing them to test the generational differences, there are currently 42 descendants of Subject 7, but Subject 7 itself passed away after giving birth at some point. Some of these descendants were kept as slimes while others were made to take specific forms, they are currently running numerous experiments regarding the difference between generations with that bunch in a secondary lab.
Subject 8 was forced to experience various rough treatments and became an electrical conductor and developed an internal battery to store electricity for later use. Someone also decided that Subject 8 was destined to eat snakes and eels after developing these abilities.
Subject 9 is me. There are 12 first gen Kronos Cells including me currently in this facility. Meaning that the most recent first gen cell to join the lab should be number 14 by that count, but Subjects 10 and 13 got a little unlucky so Subject 16 was brought in last week.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
It seems they are still unaware of my sentience, which is good because I plan on escaping soon. The security is pretty tight so I haven’t found an escape yet but hopefully I’ll find a chance to make a break for it this evening when we’re being transferred over to a temporary holding area. It seems that the lab and cells are due an upgrade so all the Kronos Cells are being taken to a temporary holding area while they work. It would seem I have no more than three days to make my escape.
I’m concerned about where to go after I escape the prison guards, I say escape but were on a gigantic ship somewhere in the middle of space – even if I escape the guards I’ll still be trapped on this ship. I can either sneak around this ship for the rest of my life or find a way off it. It’s hard to say which is preferable, if I stay I’ll be found eventually and if I go there will probably be a huge target on my back and blaring alarms telling them where I am. Then again, if I escape that situation too then I’ll be truly free.
Suddenly the door opened and a guard dressed in black protective gear entered.
Evening already? I must have been too lost in thought.
The guard grabbed my arm and wrenched me upwards onto my feet, I struggled to balance due to the suddenness of his actions. He looked down at me with a strange look that I’ve never seen before and dragged me along. Nothing was said, he didn’t know I could understand him and I didn’t want him to know. Thanks to the knowledge I plundered from various people I knew exactly where we were going and how we were getting there.
I know the route, but this isn’t it… Where are we going and why?
I tapped into the guard’s brain and came to understand after sifting through his mind to find his current thoughts…
… This would be a perfect opportunity to escape wouldn’t it?
I thought as I came to understand what he intended to do. I struggled to keep a straight face, I was grinning like a madman inside and would have on the outside too if not for the fact that I was trying to hide things.
The guard, no, the man took me to a storage area which sees very little traffic after taking a small detour from the correct route. I kept up my airheaded act and looked around the room as if I were curious about everything. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground behind a stack of crates and the man laughed a quiet yet vulgar laugh. He undid his belt and lowered his fly as he sauntered towards me.
Shit, I’m not ready for this!
I thought as he approached. I almost backed away but made my resolve and kept up the act. I put on a stupid face and tilted my head at his manhood, something I didn’t have. After a moment I noticed something.
I don’t understand, what is there to be afraid of?
I instantly calmed down and stopped shaking, I giggled and he got enraged.
“Bitch! What are you laughing about?! Do you think I’m small?!?!”
I had no idea why he was angry but it seemed fun to provoke him in this state, so I did.
“You’re TINY!”
Oops, I let slip that I know English.
“You bitch! I’ll teach you your place!”
Lucky me, he wasn’t thinking with his brain, I would have been screwed otherwise – in both ways now that I understand what he was trying to do.
He lunged at me even though he was already almost touching me.
I jumped backwards at the last moment, grabbing the grey and light green plasma knife at his waist with my right hand in a reverse grip and pulled with.
It was all planned. I would grab the knife and back away, leaving him unarmed with his pants down. Once in possession of the knife I would run and make you trip, it should be easy with your pants halfway down like that.
That was the plan, unfortunately I haven’t had enough practice moving around because of the tiny cell I was kept in, and as a result I fell during this manoeuvre.
Oh no, I can’t fight from this position
The man stumbled after stepping on my ankle, he wasn’t expecting the elevation. He put so much force into his foot that it broke my ankle, which was now angled the wrong way. The pain was so intense I couldn’t help but yelp. I thought it was all over for me until I turned my head to see him landing very awkwardly next to me.
This is my chance!
I squeezed the knife handle as hard as I could, rolled with all my might, and swung it into his back. He howled in pain and lost the strength in his arms for a moment, arching his back as the knife connected with his shoulder. I was lucky, the awkward fall had sprained his wrist on impact, slowing his rise.
I pulled myself over him into a sitting position on his lower back using the knife as a grip, he realised what was happening and started to panic. He tried to crawl away but could muster almost no strength in his left arm due to the wound in his shoulder.
Everything slowed down in that moment, I was about to fulfil my entire life’s worth of rage – even if that life was only a month long right now. It was satisfying, it was calming, it made me feel stronger.
This is vengeance
I understood this feeling, I was committing the sin of Wrath, and it was the best feeling of my short life.
In the slowed time I grabbed the knife and tore it out his shoulder, a wide grin spread on my face as I lowered the knife down on his back, again and again, I stabbed him until I was satisfied. He was covered in blood, now only a corpse. I too was covered in blood, but the smell of the blood almost felt like it was filling my belly, the belly which had been empty as long as I can remember.
As the Euphoria passed I came to my senses and looked around, I needed to make myself hard to follow, I needed to hide. The area was clear so I took a moment to inspect the belongings of the man. He had the plasma knife which is already in my hands, a tattered grey vest, long grey slacks, a half removed belt with a knife holster and a pouch with some rations, black protective plating, a symbol on his chest, dog tags around his neck, and an ID card of some sorts.
I looked at myself.
Nothing
No clothes, no food, no weapon – the knife doesn’t count yet.
I glanced around again to make sure there were no witnesses before rolling his body further behind the crates. I took his shirt off and used is to wipe away any blood that may be visible to a random passer-by. I then proceeded to loot him. I had no use for the bloody rags that his vest became so I threw them aside.
I picked up the pants, they were much too big for me. I had a problem, I had no clothes at all.
No wait, do I really have to keep them whole?
The answer is no; I don’t. I decided to tear the pants into strips and pieces lengthways, and then wrapped the pieces around my own body. It was crude, but it got the job done. I had wrapped up my waist, and chest quite thoroughly, even adding some of the protective plating here and there. That gave me an idea, I tore the remaining fabric into thinner strips and made myself shin guards and gauntlets. I wrapped some cloth around my feet but that was still inadequate as footwear. I’ll need to upgrade my entire wardrobe over time. Fortunately, I was small, so a little fabric went a long way.
Now that I had equipped myself as I could, it’s time to leave. I checked my ankle, it was swollen, but fortunately I had high regeneration abilities as a Kronos Cell and the bones had already set back in place. It was time to make a break for it.