Chapter 17 - Sea of Venus(9) - I am…
Harper turned towards the table, “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Yeah.”
A tight-fitting helmet was placed on top of the standard issue military armor. Dr. Fritz handed Gaius a small glowing knife and pressed his hand on Gaius’s shoulder, “Are you sure?”
Gaius stared into his grandfather’s eyes.
Dr. Fritz closed his eyes with his hand as he walked away, “I’m sorry. I’ll fix this once it’s all over.”
Harper looked into Gaius’s visor, “Once you enter the experiment room, we won’t be able to help you. Set a control phrase.”
“What?”
“You have any preferences?”
“Not really. What do you think?”
“Guardian obeys.”
“Why?”
Harper grinned, “It is simple and effective. Perfect as a control phrase for the experiment.”
Gaius turned towards the hatched and slid into the experimental chamber, "Thanks for helping.”
Harper glanced at the figure of Dr. Fritz walking outside the room, “Good luck kid.”
A small hatch opened, and Gaius leapt down into the translucent room. The bright white lights flicked off and a deep blue flood light illuminated the room. A small hole opened in the ceiling.
A robotic voice reverberated inside the helmet, “Trial one. Trial name. Chicken soup.”
A chicken floated down from the ceiling on a small robot. The voice spoke, “Kill it.”
Gaius looked down at the chicken and at the faintly glowing blue knife in his hand. He gripped the handle of the knife in his right hand and grabbed the erratically moving chicken’s neck with his left hand.
*Thunk*
The knife stopped at the bone of the chicken. Black liquid dripped out of the chicken’s neck as it grew limp. Gaius’s lip curled as he took his hand off the knife to find it fully lodged in the chicken’s neck. He looked up at the ceiling.
“Kill it Guardian.”
Gaius stared at the chicken. Wasn’t it dead already? What more did it want? Did it want the chicken to be… more dead?
Gaius reversed his grip on the knife and with his thumb squished the bottom of it. A soft buzzing sound that slowly grew louder filled the room and seconds later a splatter of black liquid coated the chamber. A coat of black stained feathers were glued to the walls of the chamber from dried liquid.
Gaius looked up and saw feathers slowly floating to the ground. He watched them fall to the black ground. It was as if snow was being consumed by a void.
“Trial one clear. No signs of enlightenment. Proceeding with trial two. Trial name. Slice of bacon.”
A small platform floated down weird straight piece of flesh. Gaius couldn’t recognize it from the blue light.
“Slice it.”
Gaius stared at the piece of flesh. How to slice it? What does slice mean? Slice in half? Slice it into how big of a piece. Gaius looked at the knife, did it matter? Gaius held down the piece of meat with his left hand and raised the dagger over his head.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
*Spltch*
Gaius moved his thumb over the back of the dagger and breathed in. Was this a slice?
*Sqltch*
Black liquid sprayed in every direction coating the whole room in a viscous layer of liquid. Gaius looked down and noticed the liquid had reached his ankles. Small minced chunks of the meat and chicken floated about in the liquid but where hard to make out in the sea of darkness.
Gaius almost laughed at how close the liquid looked to the night sky. Black and littered with little dots.
Gaius noticed a larger piece of meat and picked it up to inspect it. Gaius staggered back dropping the chunk of meat.
A human fingernail.
What was that? Was that in the chicken? Did he vaporize an arm? What happened?
“Trial two clear. Insignificant signs of enlightenment. Proceeding with trial three. Trial name. Appendage processing.”
Gaius stared at his hands, covered in thick black liquid, and laughed, “Am I also part of this nothingness?”
A floating platform lowered down the silhouette of a naked man who was bleeding out of a missing left arm. The man’s screams reverberated through the chamber sending ripples across the black ocean.
“Remove the appendages.”
Gaius stared at the man and then back at the knife. Was this necessary? Mental trauma? This was more like some stupid experiment. What was the point of it?
“Detecting significant signs of enlightenment. Aiding process. Injecting motor commands.”
Gaius’s eyes jerked open, and he could feel his body moving against his will. The knife sliced off the man’s right arm and he collapsed backwards screaming.
As black liquid drained out of the severed arm, the man’s face slowly sank into the liquid until he was fully submerged. Gaius’s arms were raised above his head as he leaned over the man.
*Tshck*
*Ptshck*
Gaius’s eyes were crying from the helmet forcing them to stay open. Suddenly it released control.
“Process three unprocessed pieces of meat.”
Gaius’s eyes widened again as the computer injected signals into his spinal cord.
*Sqltch*
His left hand slammed the back of the dagger.
*Splat*
*Sqltch*
*Splat*
*Sqltch*
*Splat*
Gaius fell backwards as the computer stopped sending signals. Catching his breath, he stood up again.
“Kill it.”
Gaius stared up at the ceiling, “Why?”
“Kill it Guardian.”
“Why?”
“Procedure four. Experiment rejecting orders. Executing procedure four.”
Gaius felt his neck jerk back as his head yanked upright. The knife set in front of him right where the man’s heart was. His body automatically moved over the man and his hand reached out to grab the now dead man’s head.
*Snap*
A bone chilling snap filled the air as his hand twisted the man’s head around to face him. He couldn’t make out anything except for the smooth figure of a human face because black viscous liquid covered the face.
*Sqltch*
The knife pierced the dead man’s body. The computer released Gaius from control.
“Kill it.”
“Why do I have to do this shit? This is so fucked up.”
“Kill it Guardian.”
Gaius started standing up when suddenly his body went limp collapsing to his knees over the dead man. The black liquid had drained enough to see two blue pupils staring directly into his visor. Gaius noticed the knife in front of him. His body was perfectly in balance above the dead man.
“Kill it.”
“Let me go! Stop this bullshit!”
“Kill it Gua- “
“I didn’t agr t-ugh”
Gaius fell limp and felt his thigh twitch. His gut twisted.
*Splat*
Black liquid spewed out of where the man’s mouth and eyes once were covering the ceiling with black liquid. Gaius couldn’t tell which direction was what anymore. It was all an endless black void. Two eyeballs floated on the top of the shin high black liquid. The blue pupils seemed to pierce right through his protective body suit.
A piece of something floated by him as he staggered to his feet. He couldn’t tell if it was chicken or… something else.
“Well done Guardian. Trial three complete. Significant signs of enlightenment. Experiment is running better than predictions. Proceeding to trial four. Trial name. Slaughterhouse.”
Gaius looked up in horror as a silhouette of seven human shaped objects were placed inside the chamber.
Gaius collapsed to the ground in disbelief, “This… can’t be true. None of the other ones were like this. What the hell is th- “
His eyes rolled back as his body collapsed backwards into the black pool of liquid.
“Subject experiencing entry stages of enlightenment. System control authorized. Proceeding with experiment.”
As if in a trance, Gaius came from laying on the ground to standing, black liquid dripping down his body suit.
“Guardian, slaughter it.”
“Guardian has passed all forty trials. Disconnecting direct neural access. Success. Reconnecting to network. Success. Transferring pertinent data.”
Black liquid came up to his shoulders as he stood as still as a statue in the center of the chamber. Unknown chunks of flesh floated past him as eyes and other pieces slowly stared back at him. Unblinking.
In the speakers, Dr.Fritz screamed, “Gaius! Gaius! You still there?”
yes
“Oh thank the gods! We’ll get you out. How are you feeling?”
Gaius closed his eyes and could hear faint screams from within his skull. He felt something warm envelope him and all the pain and screaming subsided.
I am... God.