Mercury - Part 16

Part 16 – Organized Chaos

TEST 3: SUBJECT O1MER

01/02/2023

(A four year old snow leopard recom sits strapped to a chair. A middle-aged man stands nearby with a clipboard in his hands.)
RESEARCH ASSISTANT: "Hello, Mercury. Today, we will be checking the strength of your phobia in relation to your previously established pain tolerance."
MERCURY: "That's a good way to spend a Thursday."
RA: "We will be exposing you to increasing intensity of shocks, twenty seconds apart, for a total of three hours. At any time, you may end the test by putting your bare hand, open palmed, into a pan of sewage that we will provide you with."
M: "Who collected the sewage? You, right? Ugh. That's so disgusting. You must hate your job."
RA: "It has its rewards." (Taps something on the clipboard)
M: (body becomes rigid for a moment, squeak of pain) "How can you move to a higher intensity from here?!"
RA: "Small shocks aren't likely to get you to face your fears. We're starting at a higher level." (presents the pan within touching distance)
M: "Is nausea part of the test? This smells terrible. I- GYYGH!" (body goes rigid responding to shock) "Get these straps off of me! Get me off of this chair!"
RA: "You will save yourself hours of pain if you face your phobia. Why don't you?"
M: "I don't have a phobia. It's just gross!"
RA: "Mm."
M: "I love these tests. You must be so proud of yourself for." (pauses, and then responds to a shock) "For torturing little kids. What were your results for the others?"
RA: "You're not human. There's no point in appealing to my sympathies. And telling you about the others could corrupt our results."
M: "It doesn't matter. Let me make a guess."
RA: (looks down at his sheets) "I can't stop you from speculating, Mercury."
M: (waits for a few seconds, responds to a shock) "Oww... You didn't test Mars, because this test makes no sense for him. Saturn chose the phobia after one shock. Neptune went to the very end. Uranus would have spent about ten shocks making you feel bad, and then chose the phobia when he remembered that you're pure evil. Venus would have cried like a goddamn whiner after the first shock, and spent two hours sobbing uselessly before choosing the phobia. JupitAAUGH! (responds to a shock) Jupiter would have went to about an hour before deciding that she couldn't tolerate it any longer."
RA: (raises his eyebrows as Mercury speaks, looking down at his notes) "I can't confirm or deny any of that. Besides, Jupiter hasn't even been tested yet."
M: "Well, that's fine. That's how she'll do it. I just needed to let you know what I think."
RA: "Why?"
M: "Because I know there's five behaviours. (waits, responds to a shock) Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, Venus. I'll choose one to mimic on this and subsequent tests. I'll go through in that order and choose today randomly."
RA: "So-called random choice is never random. It will betray a preference, Mercury."
M: "I counted the visible spots on your tie. 37. Modulo five, that's two. In the alphabetical order of my choices, giving a zero to Jupiter, that's Saturn."
RA: "Why are you doing this?"
M: "You'll never understand me until the day I kill you." (reaches for the pan)

***

CAMERA 2 BIO-TECH, 01/02/2025, 4:40 PM

(A six year old rabbit-recom runs out a door through the field of vision, and a cheetah recom appears out of a door into the field of vision moments afterwards.)
SATURN: "Uranus, wait!" (stops suddenly in the middle of the camera's field of vision, takes a few steps back. Whispers into the headset,) "Five and Six encounter Zero..."
(A raven-haired, well-built middle-aged man walks into the camera's field of vision, carrying the rabbit recom in one hand)
MAN: "Is this a joke? Tell me, Saturn, is this some kind of ruse you're playing at?"
URANUS: (struggles) "Run away, Saturn! Run away!"
SATURN: "Two to Five and Six, position two. Report positions."
MAN: (takes a few steps forward) "Saturn, you know it's useless to listen to Uranus right now. Are you talking to the others? You vicious little monsters. People are dead because of what you've done today." (Reaches and picks up Saturn with ease, knocking off the headset.) "I am not a variable to be manipulated. Let's go find your friends."

***

"Don't you remember me, Mercury?" The man's voice sounded through my headpiece, picked up by Sam's audio capture. "It's been such a long time, I don't blame you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Samara, while she gestured with her fingers to send me the message, "Don't come here."

"Do you know who this guy is?" I subvocalized as I ran through the hall as silently as possible, periodically checking on my PDA to check on the position of other personnel, while making sure to loop the camera fields that I was approaching, "We get the codes, find out where the other things are being kept. Direct me to the records. Then we will disable this person."

"I'm hurt, though, seeing how important that I was to you. Don't you remember me? I'm Mr. Erikson," he said, his footsteps approaching Samara. Damn it.
"Keep him occupied," I subvocalized, wishing that I could put more force into my words. I peeked around a corner that didn't have a security camera set up, "Talk to him. I will get there." I looked down to the PDA and saw Samara look down at her hands, and then up to the human.

Her voice sounded in my headset, "Mercury has been dead for a very long time. And I don't know who you are."

I looked up from my PDA and found a place to hide for a few moments. I watched the interaction some more on the screen.

"I told you already," said the human, "I think I know why you came here. For the Sol Series files, right? I know it's you, you don't have to keep lying to me. That eye twitch... I remember it. That's not something that genetics can duplicate."

Samara glanced at one of the computers and said, "My eye twitch was from a dance performance. I slipped and fell off the stage and it pinched a nerve. I can control it with local anaesthetics. What can you tell me about the Sol Series files?"

Erikson smiled. I glanced up from my screen and quickly looked around. "Mr. Marcus liked Mars, and Mr. Arthurs liked Venus but you... you were my favourite. They didn't understand the Sol Series project. You really were the most dazzling success. It was a shame that to fully test you I had to kill you. I had always wondered what happened to you... after that day. It was so hazy."

"Please, tell me where the files are."

"Search the computer. It's not as though I can stop you. I remember our last encounter."

"One hundred and sixty years ago or so. Yes. Because that's so possible and plausible... if it'll keep you from interfering, though, I'll take it," said Samara, sitting down at the nearby computer to examine it. She seemed hesitant to use it, as if thinking it was a trap. She pulled out her PDA, took an image of the screen and transmitted it to me. I glanced over the layout and sent her a script that could pull everything off of the computer without setting off its security system based on what I was seeing and then looked back down at my screen. Samara attached her PDA and her fingers twitched to send to me, "This computer performs decryption. Algorithm is unavailable but possible to extrapolate from copy."

That was a huge relief. That meant that the transfer already completed one part of the task. The Sol Series files were all that we needed to obtain. I honestly found it a little bit strange that Olne had stressed the importance of this part of the mission. I knew that he had genetic links to the Sol Series, as did Samara, but genetic history is generally not something that even the eccentric are willing to pay as much as Olne was paying.

I was curious about the importance of the documents. However, I've also learned over the years that it's best not to ask these kinds of questions. Still, it felt like Samara had a better idea what was going on than me. "Relay where to find the Sol Series files, I'll get them," I subvocalized, "Then we will take care of this guy. Are you okay there?"

"I'm fine," was transmitted back to me, and then Samara spoke to the human, "What should I do with you? You kind of complicated this whole operation for me, you know."

"So sorry to be an inconvenience."

Samara chuckled softly and said, "So... Erikson, was it? You-"

"That's still annoying. The way you always pretend even when I know that you're pretending."

Ignoring the interruption, Sam continued, "You must know plenty of things about this place if you're as old as you claim you are. The Sol Series files aren't coming up on my search."

"A pity, that. I wonder why? I'm sure the only way you'll get that information out of me is to beat it out of me. So why don't you try that?" He took another few steps towards Samara, who was now stepping back.

"Don't tempt me."

"Because you can't, Mercury. A perfectionist like you can't possibly screw up your little mission so much by leaving a mar on my face. But I have no such reservations. I can force you to leave your mark."

I got up from my hiding place, looking down to my security feed and quickly planning my route and running speeds. He was right. And she was unlikely to keep him occupied for much longer.

Erikson took a swing for Samara's face. I ran, and hoped I would make it there in time. The mission was compromised, Samara was compromised, and the best we could do now was get the files and get out. My feet landed softly against the stone floors, and I consciously kept track of my motions to make sure to keep silent. Every few moments, I switched attention to the feed, and switched my looping conditions as I passed through each field, timing it just right. It was an impossible amount of information to keep track of, but that's what I was good at. I also glanced to make sure Sam was doing okay. Was this man really the Mr. Erikson from the Bio-Tech reports? Sam deftly kept out of the way of his mad swinging, unable to fight back. If it really was him, was Samara really Mercury? That seemed impossible. I had her high school records, even some elementary school records. Maybe she had planted them. How could anyone live that long?

I arrived at the door and removed the cartridge from my taser. It didn't really matter who she was. All I knew is that I had to protect her.