<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

Rax looked outside the window in the small, bright and sterile examination room in the Humanitech gene clinic. The sun had set hours ago, and the lights of passing autocabs and drones painted flashing streaks across the nighttime cityscape. Each of them clear and bright to his newly enhanced eyes.

He’d just completed a short Genetic Acceleration treatment, and even though this was one of the less sophisticated treatments, the results were still exhilarating. He raised his arm and flexed for what must have been the hundredth time. He’d gained more than a dozen pounds of muscle, and his scales now covered his entire arm. If he looked closely, he could see them shimmer in places as they caught the light, where they’d been a matte rust color before.

Staring at his scales could only occupy his mind so much though. He rubbed his hand over his head, and it came away with another tuft of brown hair. Any normal Human would probably have been shocked to see their own hair coming away in thick tufts, but this was exactly what the treatment was supposed to do given the original mods he’d started to transform himself with weeks ago.

Rax looked down into the bin, and seeing the slowly growing pile of hair building in it gave him a surge of that recurring feeling of rightness. Rax was glad his hair was falling out. Humans had hair, not Dragons… Well okay, some Dragons had fur, like Gev. Gev’s vibrant green fur was totally different from Human hair though!

Rax’s scale and hair related musings soon turned to the meetup with his online friends that was happening in just a few days. He felt another wave of rightness as he thought about showing off the progression of his mods to his friends. The more Draconic he was, the better. There was something about the idea of gathering together with other Dragons that resonated with him too.

He couldn’t afford to buy acceleration treatments on his own, but when Biodyne had contacted him with an offer a few days back, he’d jumped at the chance to push the progression of his mods along more quickly. All it would cost him was getting some marketing spam for a few weeks, which he’d then unsubscribe to once the contractually obligated term was up.

Gev and his new friend had expressed some concern when he’d first told them about it, but he was glad to be able to prove them wrong. Kai had set up a private server for them to message one another without the risk of a corporation snooping around their conversations. Rax thought it was paranoid, but went along with it to start getting in touch with more Dragons. Once again, something about that decision simply felt right to him.

He uploaded another selfie to the chat room, still mesmerized by how much longer and angular his muzzle was now. He loved the way his golden eyes glittered back at him on his small phone screen too. Gev reacted to it quickly, and Kai showed up as having seen the photo almost as fast. Maybe they were as happy for his progress as he was… Or just amused at how long he'd been stuck in this small room for.

He looked away from his phone, down at his feet. They were in a somewhat awkward spot between digitigrade and plantigrade after the treatment. More or less long, clawed human feet. Perhaps a little thicker and stronger, but not by much. His shoes probably wouldn’t fit anymore. He felt a spike of frustration at having to walk home barefoot. His skin was significantly thicker on the pads of his feet now and should be fine though. He had no idea if he’d be better off walking on his toes yet, or flat on his feet like a Human still. Would it be painful to walk around like this before his feet finished changing completely?

The door gave a click and slid open, interrupting his thoughts and admitting a pale skinned, middle aged man. His thick rimmed glasses only distracted a bit from his thinning hair and pinched mouth.

“Ah, sorry for the wait, uh…” The man adjusted his glasses and squinted at the tablet he was holding for a moment. “Rax, is it?”

“Yep, kept me waiting long enough.” Rax replied from the bed, crossing his arms.

“Ah yes, my apologies for that! We had to make certain there weren’t any uh… Abnormalities with your procedure today. None of the tests showed anything wrong though, I’ll just need to ask a few questions and you can be on your way!” The man gave him an almost too-cheerful smile.

“Abnormalities? You didn’t think you should have warned me before I went through with this?” Rax asked. He didn’t put much force behind the question though. He’d not have held back from accepting the treatment unless there was significant risk to it. Gev had gone through something similar, albeit much more extensive and come out just fine after all.

“W-well surely you know of all the risks? You wouldn’t have acquired such… Extensive modifications without due consideration, yes?”

“No no, I’m just giving you a hard time. Let’s get the questions over with eh?”

The man’s smile returned and he squinted at the clipboard again. “Right then, umm... Are you in any pain or discomfort? Quite common with these procedures..."

"Nope, I feel just fine. Better than ever in fact!" Rax flexed a newly bulked up arm for emphasis.

"Good! Good. Any problems with your vision or hearing?"

"Well, my vision is a bit better than before. But probably not what you mean right?" Rax gave the doctor a toothy grin, emphasized by his now enlarged muzzle.

"No, no not at all!" He replied too-cheerily. He squinted at his tablet. "Hmm right... You're not hearing unusual sounds... Or voices?"

The strange question cut through Rax’s good mood. "I... What? No, nothing like that." Rax eyed the doctor more closely. The question was too close to what Gev had been taking about, and what had happened to Kai.

The doctor seemed to sense his discomfort. "Ah, sorry if these are a bit... Intrusive? I don't know why they put questions like that in these things...” He cleared his throat and his smile returned, probably forced. “Right um… Next question! Have you felt any…”

Everything went black. The room vanished. The doctor’s voice simply stopped.

Rax should have panicked, but emotions wouldn’t come. His mind and senses were simply empty.

After a moment, or an hour, or a year, sight began to return. Just blurry blobs of light and shadow at first, which slowly resolved into a figure before him. He couldn’t make out anything else about where he was, and his hearing was muffled as though he were underwater.

The figure before him resolved further into a Human. He was holding a long, shining, silvery object. Rax still couldn’t hear, couldn’t move, and could only just make out the man before him. He seemed to be wearing… Armor? It wasn’t anything like the armor he’d seen riot police or soldiers wearing. Too bright, too heavy.

He tried to focus his eyes on the strange armor, but they wouldn’t respond. His gaze stayed locked on the man’s face. He was saying something, looking down at the length of metal he held in gauntleted hands. Rax couldn’t make anything out with his muffled hearing. He tried to open his mouth to ask the man to repeat himself. Nothing happened.

His gaze stayed locked on the man as he hefted the object, and rammed it home into Rax’s chest. Directly into his heart.

Pain consumed all sensation. All thought. His vision began to fade back to black at the edges until all that remained was the man’s face, contorted in a rictus snarl, spattered with Rax’s own blood. He twisted the object one final time. Another wave of pain washed away everything.

Rax floated in a void of agony without sight or hearing, until the pain too, faded to nothing.

The first thing Rax was aware of was a ringing in his ears. It started slowly, then built more and more until he thought he’d surely be deafened by the sound. After reaching a piercing crescendo, it faded away and resolved into the doctor’s voice.

“… and you’re recording everything the other one is saying, yes?’

Rax’s eyes shot open, and he gasped for breath as sensation finally returned. The doctor stumbled back from directly in front of him, much closer than he’d been moments ago with a look of shock on his face. He was holding something in one hand. A microphone?

“What the fuck did you just do to me??” Rax shouted at the man.

“I… I… You were just staring off into space! I think… I think this is what the questionnaires…” The man trailed off shaking visibly, his eyes wide with fear.

Rax rose to his feet, and felt rage boiling inside him, directed squarely at the man cowering before him. Or was it the strange man from his… Vision? Dream? Was he angry at both? He decided that it didn’t matter, and he didn’t care. This man was up to something, and Rax was leaving before he had a chance to finish whatever it was… And before his rage overcame him completely.

“Move.” He demanded as he walked toward the door. The man quickly ducked out of his way just as Rax roughly pulled it open and left before his anger could grow any stronger.

Gaius watched the large modified man stalk out of the room. As soon as he was sure he was in the clear, he straightened his posture and heaved a sigh of relief. He calmly walked out of the examination room and into the room next to it. The space was roughly the same size as an exam room, but was cluttered with computers and other monitoring equipment in front of each of the one-sided mirrors that looked into the two adjacent exam rooms.

Gaius took off the thick rimmed glasses and set them on the table. He didn’t need glasses, but playing the role of an inexperienced lab technician or nurse was the quickest way he could personally observe the changes in these modified individuals. Glasses, a hunched posture, and an anxious disposition served to cover his true purpose in these encounters.

Humanitech had been documenting an ongoing pattern of mental health crises affecting patients with heavy genetic modifications for several weeks now. Vague reports and statistics weren’t enough for him though. Gaius felt compelled to investigate these individuals personally. The involvement Humanitech’s Head of Genetic Architecture in this problem was bringing more attention from the Board of Directors than he was comfortable with, but he couldn’t help himself.

The creation of genetic modifications that could transform a human into something like the man that had just stormed out of the next room was the greatest achievement of Gaius’ career. He couldn’t explain why granting a human longer life, superhuman strength, or even curing cancer wasn’t enough to satisfy him. Perhaps it was simply that those things were easy given the advancements in genetic technology that he’d helped pioneer.

Gaius walked over to one of the one-sided mirrors and peered into the examination room. It was a mirrored twin of the one the other man had just left. Inside there was another modified individual. A woman with delicate curling horns, and lavender scales that shimmered slightly in the bright light of the room. His assistant was in the room with her, holding a microphone up to record whatever it was she was muttering to herself. She appeared dead to the world around her, narrating some strange dream, the same as all the others. Or at least, all the others, except for the one that had just stormed out of the other room…

It was these more extreme modifications, like the ones this woman had acquired, that were the greatest challenge in the field of genetic engineering. Changing the body of a fully grown adult to give them claws, a muzzle, tail, scales, or horns was challenging. Doing so without also giving them a plethora of incurable cancers, leaving them in chronic pain, or simply killing them outright had seemed impossible when he’d started his research over a decade ago.

Over the past few years though, the impossible had become reality. The woman in the room before him was living proof. She sat on the bed in a hospital gown, staring at the wall unseeing, still muttering to herself.

Only a tiny fraction of people actually wanted modifications like these, but Humanitech charged a heavy premium to justify paying him and his team to develop something so few people actually wanted. When he’d argued in favour of developing these modifications to the Board, he’d argued that the research would provide benefits to the more ubiquitous applications of genetic modification, and he’d been right.

Genetic Acceleration treatments were the direct result of his research into Cross-Species Modification. Cancers could now be cured in an afternoon, lifelong debilitating conditions gone in an instant. And, he’d argued to the Board, genetically enhanced soldiers given strength, stamina, and enhanced reaction time as and when they were needed…

Creating super soldiers wasn’t his passion, however. Just a carrot to dangle in front of the Board to keep the funding coming. As he watched the woman behind the glass talk quietly to herself, he felt frustration and desperation well up within him. Cross-Species Modification had been a resounding success for years now. So much so that companies like Biodyne had stolen the techniques through corporate espionage and began selling their own competing products within months of Humanitech’s initial offerings.

Gaius had at least been able to make a small gain from the thefts, however. The woman in the other room, and Raxesh had both been drawn here with offerings of free Genetic Enhancement treatments in exchange for “market research participation.” An almost laughable cover story from his perspective. Why would Humanitech offer free treatments to enhance the effects of a competitor’s product?

That flimsy story hinted at Gaius’ own desperation, however. After years of successful treatments, swaths of genetically modified patients were exhibiting signs of mental breakdowns, and all in the span of weeks. Humanitech was able to cover it up to some extent, but the Board was out of patience and was demanding answers.

Gaius had examined every possible variable. The method of genetic modification, whether or not Genetic Acceleration was used, the prior physical and mental health of each patient, even the specific clinic and company they acquired their modifications from. None of these factors correlated to the patients who had symptoms like the woman before him.

He’d found two commonalities so far. The first was that every patient had modified themselves to look like a dragon. That made no sense though. Dragons don’t exist. These modifications were merely the compound of many different species to produce the appearance of a mythical creature. Not only that, but there was a huge variance in what these patients looked like, which mean the species their modifications were drawn from differed greatly from patient to patient.

The second, and far stranger discovery, was that these patients only seemed to exhibit symptoms when in close proximity to one another. This factor made it significantly harder for Humanitech to cover up the problem. A random person seeing someone hallucinating in the street is strange, but not uncommon in a world where drug addiction ran rampant. Seeing two, or three all within a few minutes of one another was a story, however. They wouldn’t be able to contain this for much longer without… Drastic measures.

Gaius had hoped that the proximity factor was simple coincidence, but today’s experiment proved that wrong. He didn’t need to review the camera footage to confirm it, but he did so anyway. He scrubbed the footage back to the moment when the woman entered the exam room and met up with his assistant, already waiting inside. Gaius and Raxesh were in the other room. He watched himself play the role of the clueless, uncomfortable questionnaire-giver, until Raxesh and the woman in the other room both stopped talking at the exact same moment.

What struck him was the behavior of Raxesh. The duration of these hallucinations was consistent and predictable, around 4 or 5 minutes each. The woman in the other room was already looking around, dazed. His assistant had stopped a timer on one of the displays in the room remotely, and was now talking calmly to the patient, who seemed dazed. The timer read 4 minutes and 37 seconds. That fit the pattern perfectly.

Raxesh had taken only 29 seconds before screaming and regaining awareness. That had caught him completely off guard, and he hadn’t been able to put away his microphone before the patient had seen it. It was a break in the pattern though, and Gaius was desperate for something, anything to explain why the modifications were failing in such a bizarre way.

An edge case like Raxesh might very well be the key to this, and Gaius would find the answers he needed…