Subject: newe Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 03:55:16 -0800 (PST) From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: gensao@tmffa.com Weak 10 By the Unknown DJ Pre-read by Anyaku: Many thanks for saving this fic! Bobertkay: Thank you! 10. It had started with 10. Deep in the labs of a corporation there had been 10 of them: youthful, intelligent, magical. They were to be the new project, the project to bring the people on a washed up planet of Retross. For years, the planet had been leaving a below average lifestyle in a Dark Age, but that would change. It was finally ready to be brought up to pace with the rest of the galaxy. In fact, it was going to take a jump ahead of everyone else. The 10. They were children from cities around the planet. Like all other kids, they were on the verge of adulthood and ready to discover specific realities about the future. However, what made them different was an abnormality in their mind, a strong psychic bond. It allowed the children to do things that other’s their age only dreamed of wished for. So, in the middle of a technological crisis, how can a handful of extra-ordinary kids help create a solution? That, is where Gexa came in. Gexa was the your average, everyday, multinational corporation that dealt with science and biological advances. It was always on the move, exploring new possibilities and trying to just create a new and better tomorrow. For awhile, they lived up to their standards and they were, in the public’s view, a good, Hardworking Company. But as everyone has known to see at some time, or another, the company stopped carrying about its customers and instead, went for high profit moves. Prices were inflated on their existing products and objects were obtained for cheapness in price, without a care of quality. It was now, that Gexa turned to an even darker side and soon it opened up to a new idea: human research. The idea, at one time, would have been out of the question by Gexa rules. It would have been thought of as evil and completely inhumane. With little appeal from employees, (Only CEO’s, or high Gexa officials count here), the decision to test on their own kind was forwarded and ratified. Then, Anthropologists, Biologists, and Psychologists were all hired to start tests on people in broad subject areas. After about 5 years of poking and prodding, a scientist came across a rare finding. He had been dealing with a middle-aged man who had been rumored to have some small psychic capabilities. Through many tests, the scientist finally developed a way to suck the man’s psychic energy out of him and into a storage unit. The scientist had then released the energy into the building’s power system and with the proper handling, the building had been able to run off the new energy source for over a month. However, the man had died immediately after the energy had been taken from him. It was as if the machine had sucked the life out of him. This caused the scientist a small confusion, until he had come across a young girl with the same capabilities. The girl had been about seven when she was committed and for the next 18 years, the scientist monitored her. These years produced a graph for the scientist, showing him a huge difference from the man. At the beginning of the girl’s stay, her power had already been more then four times quantity of the man. Then, as the years progressed, the girl’s power increased at unsteady rate. But, it never decreased and it always increased by at least 280%. Finally, at the age of 17, the girl had reached her peak. She had now more then 30 times her original power. If Gexa had not been as protective as it was and if the girl herself had been aware of her power, godlike acts could have been committed. Gexa’s luck had been good though, and not once had the girl been made aware of her power. For the next 8 years, the girl’s power began to slowly decrease. The scientist slowly did calculations and statistics tests with stats from each new year, until he came across a result: when the girl reached the age of the man, she have just about the same amount psychic energy that he had. Meanwhile, the girl was becoming mentally disturbed. Everyday, she was experimented on, samples drawn from her, and it had become too much to bear. Also, memories of her family had come to haunt her, first in her dreams, and then in her conscious state of mind. One fateful day, a nurse had entered her cell to find the girl dead from strangling herself with her own bed sheets. Strangely enough, her dead face had small grin on it, as if self-satisfaction had been gained by ridding herself of her life. Thus, a decision was made. Even though the only two-test subject who had taken place in these sets of experiments had died, research would continue. Only now, security would be increased once again and the patients would be given food with heavy sedatives and suppression pills, so they would always be tired and more willing. Also, the patients would be given high levels of education, so they could progress far beyond their supposed intellectual levels. However, the education itself left out many key points of life. Non of the students would be allowed to learn about emotional feelings, creative thought process, and especially about love. For these posed threats to a patient’s, “well being.” Then new subjects were found, with the help of a malevolent bounty hunter, and quickly they were sent to live in Gexa’s establishment. At very young ages between 2 and 10 years old, the ten new test subjects began to go through. Quickly, the children’s memories were wiped in hopes that their past relationships could be forgotten. The project went on, quietly for about 7 years. Then, two subjects had reached their peaks and were sucked of their energy. Despite not knowing that there were other kids in the facility due to the isolation factors, the some of the eight remaining subjects knew something was wrong. The guards had been acting strange and quiet, and the teachers had acted as if they were missing something. Also, the scientists had demanded more samples then usual. A year later, the program was discovered from a different party… He sat in his cell, alone and tired. He had just finished his lunch ration and he already felt a little drowsy. By his knowledge of the daily schedule, he time to fit in a small nap before the guards came to take him to his schooling Schooling, the most entertaining part of his day, consisted of five hours where four different people gave him five subjects: Language Comprehension with Dr. Scot, Mathematics with Dr. Ferdiriko, Science Text and Biological research with Dr. Zanqua, and finally, his favorite class, Anthorpology with Dr. Cany. Anthropology had his favorite class, because not a lot was expected of him and Dr. Cany wasn’t very strict. During this class, all he had to was what Dr. Cany asked him to do. Some days, the tasks were long and boring, like seeing how high he could multiply, or describing, in scientific terms, the life of a cabbit, or fruit flies. Other days, however, the tasks were deeper. Dr. Cany would have him concentrate his mind on an object and see if the he could levitate it. Or Dr. Cany would think of a random number inside and have him try to guess it. These activities were probably the only thing that gave him any entertainment at all. Otherwise, he had to spend his time in his cell, which contained very, little that would interest anyone. His cell was shaped like a box, with the sides about 8 feet in length. On one side was his bed, which I might add, was pretty comfortable and contained 3 sheets and a comforter. He had a small chair which was very small, stiff, and it resembled a plastic lawn chair. On the wall was a comlink that connected him to an office, where he could ask for provisions. The only other item in the room was a small shelf that contained several books on mathematical theories, grammar processing, and biology. If he wanted new clothes or food he had to use the comlink. As he sat on his bed, waiting for the lessons, a harsh knock came at the door. This signaled the boy to stand at his bed, ready. After a couple seconds, the door opened and in entered a man in a black uniform marked, “Gexa Employee #456,327: Quarias Scroggins.” The man was pretty chubby, longhaired, and a grey brown beard hung from his face. Strapped to his back was a large rifle. The man did look menacing, but only to a stranger. He smiled at the boy and greeted him with a big friendly grin, “Hello, boy! You ready for yer lessons?” The boy returned the smile, very happy to see his friend. Through all the years spent in Gexa, Scroggins had been the only person who had treated the boy like a boy. Never once did he refer to the kid as his codename, “Seven”, and he had always greeted the boy with a lot of friendliness. After all, the kid had never really been able to, “experience”, life and Scroggins hated the idea of the boy locked in the cell. But what could I do? Scroggins had thought of this for a long time now, but everytime it came up, Scroggins was brought back to the realization that he was old, overweight, and underpaid. If he tried to get permission to take the boy away from the company, he would get laughed at and then possibly fired. And if he were fired, the boy would never see him again. The only other realisitic option involved Scroggins getting word of the boy out into public. A lot of good that would do though. Gexa would quickly hide the boy, cover it up as a conspiracy, and then pay someone off to get Scroggins head put on a silver platter. So, with these factors in mind, Scroggins had kept his job as a security guard for the Gexa Corporation. “Yes, Scroggins. I’m very anxious to get to class!” said the boy. He also knew that Scroggins would get fired if he tried anything bad and the clear aftermath would never again involve a relationship for the boy. And if complete isolation from a bond with someone ever happened to him, the boy knew he couldn’t survive. “Well, we will take you to class, but first, we have to have an inspection. I’m sorry, boy.” The kid groaned at the thought of an inspection. They lasted for a long time and not once had the boy ever been allowed the knowledge of what happened. It basically meant he would have to sit around and wait till Scroggins returned. “Okay,” replied the boy. With that, Scroggins said good bye and closed the door. On the outside of the door, Scroggins touched a couple of buttons on the adjacent wall. After the code was entered, a slab of wall slid down and concealed the entrance to the boy’s cell. The wall itself, was hollow, (for the boy’s breathing purposes), but it hidden the door well from ocular view. I sure hope this goes by quick, thought Scroggins to himself. Kiyone stood at the gate entrance to the office building that she would be inspecting. She never knew why the GP had sent her on these missions, but mostly she was just supposed to make sure that no illegal activity was at hand. For, Kiyone, it seemed like a waste of time. Most of the places were huge corporations and companies that either had no problems or that could hide their problems well from possible findigs of illegal activity. The only way you find out every possible secret would be to point a gun to the CEO’s head, while having the whole force rip the place apart. She entered the building, alone. She was surprised, (and a little relieved) that she would be doing this inspection on her own. Without Mihoshi, she would not worry about embarrassment and she couldn’t possibly mess up anything as bad with the blonde bombshell. After all, Mihoshi said she wasn't feeling well, so Kiyone had let her stay at home. Later, Kiyone would have wished for back from anyone, including Mihoshi. The receptionist called her boss and soon, two men in suits came to greet her. One was a tall, scary looking man, who was also very skinny and he wore a morbid expression on his face. He reminded Kiyone of Lurch or Herman Munster, but both of those television characters were a lot more happy then this guy. The other was a short, fat man who had a wide grin. Over the grin was a thin and pointy mustache, followed by a long skinny nose. His hair was black and slicked back, his suit neatly pressed. To Kiyone, he was the sleaziest they came, (after Nobuyuki of course). He was the definiton of a rat. "Hello, Officer," said the fat one, "My name is Diggs and this is Vaken. We will be showing you the premises of our company, to assure you everything is in fine condition." "Well, lets hurry it up then. I have to see more companies with flawless repuations, so I want to get this thing going" At this reply, Kiyone saw Diggs frown. Instantly, her intuition told her that this man was a suck up, a squeeze, and pet. If this company were ever seriously threatened with slander, or gossip, this man would probably be on the front line of the opposition. After the man openingly showed his uneasiness to Kiyone, he turned and headed to a large corridor. “Right this way,” said Diggs.ENDZ You like? E-mail theunknowndjendz@yahoo.com. DJ out. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com