Chapter 3
I awoke to pain and the coppery taste of blood in my mouth; from the slap I had just received. The kick to my midsection that forced the air out of my lungs and the blood out of my mouth was just to remind me who was in charge. "Good Morning, Subject x-tr8". They don't let you have names because that lets you remember who you are. There was a crackle of electricity and the smell of singed fur as pain ran in a line of fire across my back.
"Good Morning, Doctor" I growled in shryiwook, which was immediately translated into basic by the vocal implant in my throat. It came out in the precise mechanical sounds of a machine. They expected you to be polite too.
“So, how are you today?” Dr. Gast asked as he motioned for the storm troopers to leave the room.
“I’m exhausted. I feel like I have been running from a persistent predator for the last week, and he has almost caught up with me. In fact I’m ready to just lie down and let him have me.”
“Yes well after what you have been through I can understand your feelings. Have there been any other abnormal side effects from the drug treatments.”
“Yes, there are still gaps in my memory when I black out and can not remember what has happened to me. “
“That’s not good at all. If I cannot figure out how to fix this you may not be able to be used in the pilot program. You would serve no use to Zsinji any longer and he would certainly have no qualms about killing you or putting you in a slave detail. Well I need to draw some more blood and run some more tests, so if I could have your arm for a moment.” After he finishes drawing the blood he says, “Well I should have this analyzed and a new drug treatment ready for you in a few days, until then.” As Gast turns and leaves my room I wonder how much longer this will be my room. This is the same room that Sara led me to years ago. I cannot be certain of the exact amount of time but I know it has been at least five years since I moved up into the next phases of conditioning.
“You have been selected to pioneer a series of new biological enhancements, that will not only make you faster, stronger, and smarter, but will better allow you to control your animal instincts,” Melvar spit out the last few words with a sneer. “The process you are about to undertake has been created by Doctor Gast, head of Admiral Zsinji’s personal research team. It is made up of a series of drug treatments and psychological conditioning. You are one of the first to undergo this program so the data we gain off of you will be invaluable to the advancement of the empire.” Before he can get the final words out I have already let out my most ferocious roar and charged him, but before I get within ten feet I catch three criss-crossing stun beams in the chest from the stormtroopers flanking Melvar. “If you cannot act like a civilized being we will put you back in the cage and leave you there to rot. You will have the rest of the night to think about it.”
Now I wish that I had chosen to go back to the cage and had died there instead of becoming what I am now. After five years of conditioning as they call it, I think it is more of brainwashing, I am becoming less of myself and more of what they what me to be. Dr. Gast has theorized that my body chemistry has somehow rejected the drug treatment therefore slowing down the conditioning process. He has shown me the video feeds of the blackouts I experience. When I blackout my mind actually reverts to its conditioned state and I become what they have trained me to be mind. So I sit here day by day waiting for the day when I will fall asleep and someone else will wake up in my place.
Routine that was my life, wake up receive injections go to a conditioning session receive injections, after lunch more conditioning more injections. Injections, Conditioning, Conditioning, Injections all making me not me and with no hope of escape I waited around to die. Then one day Dr, Gast brought me a brand new series of drugs formulated from my last blood tests. “Well I think I may have it this time, I’m almost sorry that I must do this to you but you understand what I am trying to accomplish.”
“I understand all right, you trying to create an army of brainwashed super soldiers for the empire, because they are afraid of the rebellion, afraid that some of their own soldiers may be sympathetic to the rebellion. So they need you to make them soldiers that can not think or feel but can only follow orders.”
“That’s not it at all, the conditioning is not really part of my research and the fact that the enhancements I have created make a person more susceptible to it is just an unfortunate side effect. However someday we will not need to fear any diseases, we will no longer need bacta all people will be able to heal themselves, and I’m creating a better existence for the inhabitants of this galaxy. Now your arm if you please.”
As I present him my arm I reply, “What good is a better life if it is lived by someone else because you are not yourself anymore? A life where you are forced to follow the will of a..n..o..ther. Grrrrrrrrr!!!” My screams split the air as it feels like molten metal has just been injected into my arm. The pain is so intense I barely hold onto consciousness long enough to hear Gast call for help.
Lying in a bed in the medical ward I drift in and out of consciousness. I hear voices around me constantly talking saying words that I can almost comprehend but still cannot quite grasp. I’m not sure how long I was there before I was awoken one night by crying. I sat up and saw Dr. Gast slouching in a chair across the room his body racked by sobs. “What happened?” Or at least that is what I wanted to say all I got out was an indefinable growl. Gast looked up his eyes red rimmed and tears streaming down his cheeks.
“That’s it, it’s all over, and I’ll have to start all over again.” He could tell from the look on my face that I had no idea what he was talking about. “The project, it has been decided that we need to start over with new subjects and they will be chosen from different species, ones that are of lower intelligence and sentience. And all of the old test subjects are to be liquidated, except for you. You so thoroughly rejected the conditioning and drug treatments that Zsinji has decided to keep you around. However I will not be the one to study you. Zsinji is sending you to a planet I have never heard of, and you are to be studied by an ‘expert’ he has on planet. I don’t know who would know more about this than me but Zsinji will only tell me what he wants me to know. Sp this will be the last time we ever talk, I’m sorry for everything I have done to you but your out of my control now.” As he gets up and leaves I drift away into sleep wondering at all the questions Gast has left me with, Where am I going? Who is this expert? Why am I different? With no answers all I can do is wait till I wake up.
“Welcome to Dathomir,” the pilot says as he sets down the transport shuttle I rode down from Zsinji’s command ship the Iron Fist. After I regained full consciousness Melvar and a squad of stormtroopers appeared in my room. After securing my hands in a pair of stun cuffs I was marched into this shuttle that has brought me to the next destination in my life. As I walked down the boarding ramp I noticed an old woman waiting at the end of the ramp, she is covered head to toe with a heavy robe and as I approach she begins to sniff the air around me.
“Ah, Gethzerion this is Greenbacca.”
“Yes, yes he has such a sweet smell of the force surrounding him; he will be make the perfect subject for my studies.”
Continue on to Chapter 4
Return to Greenbacca's Page
Return to Main Page