R.S.
“It’s like this every time,” Asim said, standing behind me.
Our eyes were glued to the two-sided mirror as we watched in disappointment as 0041 once again refrained from sexual intercourse with the female test subject 216.
I slammed my fist down onto the metal table in front of me, causing the sound to bounce around the room. On every turn, Alpha defied me. We’ve had a mix of success and downfalls with the second part of the project. The soldiers had initially proven to be vastly too strong for the women. The first set of breeders suffered severe vaginal damage that often resulted in full Hysterectomies and sometimes death. We’ve managed to teach the soldiers how to be gentler. Some caught on a little faster than others, and some were still learning. The next problem arose when subjects started to form favorites. They would only mate with certain females. Cutting off the breeder’s hair and placing them in basic and similar clothing helped significantly cut down favoritism. It’s still a work in progress. However, this part of the program was very important. We haven’t been able to find a way to make the subjects more human-like in behavior. Breeding them with human females was the only way to create more natural soldiers, and even though we have done all the research and made for the best breeding conditions, we haven’t had one goddamn pregnancy.
For the most part, the other soldiers had no problem mating with the breeders. It seemed that was the only thing they would do without coercion. Even still, subject 0041 had yet to breed. His offspring would be highly valued and the one we desired the most—if he would just fucking do it.
“Maybe he has performance anxiety.” One of the gun-carrying brainless soldiers suggested with a laugh.
I rolled my eyes towards the ceiling. Having the U.S. Army soldiers as armed guards had its benefits, but half of the time, it was like being around apes. I pulled out the service pistol of my most trusted guard and fired a bullet straight into the comedian’s skull. He fell to the ground. No one in the room moved.
Fucking idiot. Didn’t he know how important this was? Our careers, our reputation, and our lives depended on this program being successful.
“Anybody else want to make a dumbass joke about my life’s work?” I asked the room.
Five pairs of eyes stared blankly back at me. Everyone knew how important this project was to me. I didn’t have time for slackers and assholes that made jokes.
I handed the pistol back to Donavan, he took it and placed it back in his holster.
“Crank up the pheromones.”
“I’m going to advise against that,” Dr. Thompson, our lead geneticist said. “We already have the highest safest dose pumping through the room. Anything higher than a four, and it will cause severe pain for the female.
“I looked through the two-way glass at the female rolling around on the floor seeking release. Her body wasn’t genetically enhanced, it couldn’t handle the many signals the pheromones were sending it. Meanwhile, Alpha sat in the corner, his back to the wall, his head tilted backwards staring at the door--the same position he’d held since we placed him in the room.
“It’s time we chalk this up as a loss. We should try next week with another female,” Asim admitted dejectedly.
He’s right. I knew he was right, although we’ve yet to find a breeder that can entice Alpha.
“Why don’t you just extract the semen from him and insert it into a breeder?” Donavan suggested. “My sister and her husband were having trouble getting pregnant, and that’s what they did. They got twins out of it.”
“Because of the high potency of the subjects’ semen, they have a short life span. The time it takes for him to ejaculate into a cup and for us to insert it into the female, the sperm will have died. Unfortunately, this is the only way.”
There was a long pause as everyone in the small viewing room came to terms with this being another setback in our program. Our only option was that hopefully next week’s shipment of breeders would bring us better success.
“Let’s go ahead and wrap this up. Take 0041 back to his quarters. Bring in 2427 to finish off the girl. No need to waste her.”
I collected my tablet and headed for the door with Asim and Donavan following.
As soon as I exited, a guard ran up to me. “Sir,” he paused to salute me, and I nodded for him to continue. “We have a situation in one of the breeding rooms.” He took off down the hall, and we followed.
The commotion inside the breeding room hit us before we entered the room. Inside each breeding room was a small bed, a bedside table with a lamp, and the two-way glass. No other distractions were placed inside the rooms. When we entered, we noticed that subject 0143 was guarding something, and he refused to let any of the guards into the room. This wasn’t uncommon. The subjects became extremely protective when mating.
“What happened?” I demanded over the angry growls of 0143.
“I don’t know,” one of the scientists in charge of monitoring the breeding process answered. “Everything was going fine, then all of a sudden, someone said he was getting rough. One of the guards tried to come in and calm him down, and he nearly killed him. Now he won’t let us near her.”
I grounded my teeth at their stupidity. They knew damn well never to enter the breeding room while the mating process was still underway. They could have set the subject off worse than he was now, and there’s no telling how many guards we would have lost.
“How rough was he being?”
My question was met with silence.
“Answer me.” I barked.
“I….uh… didn’t really see it. As I said, one of the guards called it out.”
“And which guard was this?”
There were a few shifting eyes. No one wanted to rat out the dumbass guard.
Finally, one of the guards stepped forward. “It was I, sir.” The tall, blue-eyed guard stated.
The tag on the front of his uniform said “Baker”.
“And are you also the one that defied my rules and decided to enter the room first?”
Baker stiffened under my infuriated stare.
“Sir, subject 0143 was becoming increasingly aggressive. I thought it best to intervene before we lost a valuable breeder.”
“I don’t pay you to fucking think. You are here to shoot and follow orders. Unless her life is hanging in the balance, you do not enter this goddamn room. Even if the situation calls for it, there are still protocols you must follow.”
“Jessica…….” The guard looked away and then back at me. “I mean, breeder 345, isn’t able to sustain the…….”
My hand flew out and back handed the guard in the face. He stopped talking and looked at me as if he wanted to retaliate. Every gun in the room turned towards him. Donavan’s was right at his temple.
“You think I give a shit about some pussy you have clearly grown attached to? The only reason you are still alive, is because I know you haven’t fucked her. If I thought for a second you had interfered with my research in that way, I would lock you in a room with Beta and let him rip your dick off and stick it down your throat. You will follow MY orders at ALL times. Do you understand?”
The guard stared silently, the anger in his eyes remained, but the submission won out.
“Yes, sir.”
“Get him out of my face before I forget his usefulness.” A few other guards came up to escort Baker out of the room. He would still pay for his transgression.
I sighed and then turned to Asim. “Bring in Beta’s handler.”
Asim immediately got on his walkie talkie. I walked further into the room and tried to communicate with the subject. The sooner we could calm him down the less dead bodies we had to deal with. I pushed past the guards with their tranquilizer guns. We would never let them actually kill one of the subjects. Not that it would be easy, but we still wouldn’t risk it. These subjects were more valuable than these soldiers’ lives.
“Beta!” I called to the subject.
His sharp, golden-brown eyes landed on me. There were only a few subjects that had actual names outside of their numbers. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Sigma, and Omega were the only subjects that refused to answer to anything outside of their given names. All the rest were called by their identification numbers. Alpha would never answer to anything other than his name, and soon after, Beta followed in his footsteps. Eventually, the other three followed.
“Beta…” I held up my hands, palms out, showing him I meant him no harm.
Those golden eyes turned to me, and he bared his teeth.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to know if the girl is still alive.”
He growled when I mentioned the female. I lowered my head. It was wise to treat the subjects just as you would a wild animal. In this instance, to calm him down and supply him with a false sense of dominancy, I lowered my head submissively.
“She’s your female, Beta. I’m not trying to take her. I just want to know if she is alive.”
Beta stared at me. His golden eyes stood out in contrast to his dark brown skin. I didn’t move as he continued to stare me down. Finally, he shifted slightly to the right giving me a brief glimpse of the tan-skinned girl hugging her knees behind him. She was alive and unharmed. As soon as Beta had assumed my question was answered, he shifted back to block my view of her. That is when his handler entered the room. Perfect timing.
“I have something for you, Beta.” Just seeing the handler already started to calm Beta. “I will give it to you if you step aside and allow my men to take the female.”
Another growl from Beta. His body tensed again, but his eyes cut down to the box in the handler’s hands.
“Which one will it be, Beta? The female or what’s in the box? You cannot have them both.”
Beta’s sharp eyes looked up at me. For a second, there was a challenge in his eyes--one I had never seen him use before, but then his eyes adverted to the left as if he was focusing his attention elsewhere. Then he looked back at me and shifted his body to the right allowing full access to the female. I was momentarily stunned by the actions. Something just happened. Something that required further studying. The handler moved forward opening the box in his hands. He took out a silver skeleton key. The moment the key was in Beta’s hands, the guards moved forward to take the girl out of the room. Beta glanced at her once and then back down at his obsession.
Once again, the obsession succeeded in its use. I watched as the handler soothingly talked to Beta, calming him further. Because the subjects were so possessive when it came to their obsession, we had to have trained handlers. They were the only people allowed to touch the obsession. If anyone else tried to touch that key, Beta would rip their heads off before their fingers closed around it. Each subject had an obsession, and each obsession came with its own handler. After calming Beta down, the handler managed to get him dressed and back to his quarters before taking the obsession back. The subjects were never allowed to keep their obsession with them.
Another crisis adverted. I walked into my office to note the events of the day. Suddenly, my private phone rang. Damnit! I don’t need this shit right now. I pulled the phone out of my desk drawer and answered.
“Ryder Strong.”
“You promised me results, Strong! Yet, here we are getting more of your bullshit about needing more time. I did not get this program approved for you to play lab mouse with. I need soldiers. Soldiers I can use in a fucking war.”
“Sir, if you will just--”
“WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY SOLDIERS, STRONG!!!”
I work solely for a private section of the government. So private that not even the president knows we exist. However, when working a project of this magnitude, we have to have funding and other permits. When that occurs, my boss goes to congress with some type of bogus research project to get the backing we need. Right now, we are supposedly coming up with some super pill that cures erectile dysfunction and restores the amount of testosterone in a man’s body. We can only continue to get the government’s support for so long before they start pulling away funding and demanding results.
“I told you this was going to be a lengthy process. The subjects are here, but it takes time. We have a lot more to learn about them before we can trust them to…….”
“Don’t try to give me that bullshit, Strong. I know smoke and mirror tactics when I hear them. Look, I’m done playing your game. I have free time in a week. I’ll be there to see the subjects for myself. You better show me something worth my time, or I will pull the plug on this entire operation. Do you understand me?”
I gritted my teeth. Steward Scott wasn’t a scientist. He didn’t have the brains to come up with an experiment like this one. He liked to leech onto people like me and ride our genius to the top. He didn’t know what all went into what I did every fucking day. Yet, I bit my tongue, because despite how I felt about him, he does have the power to shut us down, and if he really wanted to, he could kill this operation and us with it.
“I understand.”
“Good! And Strong, I better be very fucking impressed when I get there.”
The line went dead. He didn’t need to finish the threat for me to know it was there. I dropped the phone from my ear, then ran my hand across my desk knocking everything to the ground.
I needed more time. The subjects were more than capable of performing any task Scott could give them, but they were still unstable in temperament, especially without Alpha in command, but bringing Alpha out around Scott would be a disaster. My hand slid into my white lab coat and pulled out the syringe hidden there. I just needed more time with Alpha.