The Genesis Saga

Reya yawned loudly from where she sat on the couch, watching a movie with Rann. She rubbed her eyes as she forced herself to stay awake, knowing that nothing good would come from sleeping. Rann cast her a sidelong glance, worried about how often Reya was yawning.

“How have you been sleeping?” Rann hedged. She paused the movie, the image freezing on a large explosion. Finding out the fate of the main characters as they plummeted into orbit would have to wait. Reya’s eyes were closed as she fought a losing battle against her fatigue, not responding to Rann’s question.

Blearily, Reya opened her eyes. “Is it over?” she asked. Frowning at the stilled image, she turned over to Rann, whose face was filled with concern.

“I asked you how you’ve been sleeping, but I guess I have my answer.”

“Oh, did you? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear.”

“Have you gotten any sleep these past few days?”

Reya shook her head. “Barely. Every time I fall asleep, I feel like I’m waking right back up. The dreams aren’t getting better.”

Rann looked at Reya sadly. “Do you think you can hold off until next week? The General promised that we could make a supply run for meds sometime then.”

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” Reya said tiredly. Closing her eyes again, she grabbed a throw pillow and nestled under her red blanket. “At least I have it better than Adrian.”

“What makes you think that?” Rann raised an eyebrow. This was the first she’d heard of Adrian having trouble sleeping as well, although she supposed it made sense. He also underwent a traumatic experience, if his scars were any indication.

“He has nightmares too,” Reya confirmed, her eyes still closed. Rann was surprised at how forthcoming her friend was being but chalked it up to the fatigue lowering her usual defenses. “I found him the other day when he was in the middle of one. It was pretty bad. He woke up completely confused and terrified of me. I don’t know what he was seeing, but I wasn’t it.”

“What happened after that?” Rann rarely got insight into how Adrian was doing, and often times what little she did get came from Reya. The two were growing increasingly comfortable with each other, so it didn’t surprise her that Reya was the one to know that little detail while she didn’t. When Reya hesitated, Rann pushed her for more information, not about to let the opportunity slip away. “Oh, come on, you can’t tell me that and then leave me hanging.”

A slight blush crept up on Reya face as she muttered “I went over to calm him down.”

Rann waited for more but was met with silence. “That’s it?”

“I was really close to him and we ended up holding hands,” Reya blurted out.

Rann thought back to their time on the beach. “That’s not the first time. What’s the big deal then?”

“There isn’t one,” Reya said. Rann cocked an eyebrow, taking in her friend’s shy expression. “It was a nice moment, that’s all.” Reya hugged her pillow closer. Rann grinned knowingly, deciding to let things play out naturally rather than bring it up. “Anyways,” Reya said, and cleared her throat, “the moral of the story is that Adrian also has really bad nightmares, but he doesn’t have anything to help like I did. I feel so bad about it, knowing that he’s been suffering while nobody else noticed.”

“He probably has his reasons for wanting to keep it under wraps. I can talk to Kell and see what his opinion is on getting Adrian some medication. I’m not sure if anything we have will work on him, though.”

“It’s worth a try. Poor guy could really use the help after what I saw. I don’t know what else to do.”

“Hold his hand while he falls asleep,” Rann teased. A white pillow sailed through the air and hit her square in the face, making her laugh. Reya had good aim. Rann took the offending item and placed it on the couch next to her, to prevent Reya from getting extra ammunition.

“Not funny,” Reya glowered. She reached for the pillow but Rann yanked it away. Reya pouted when she realized that she’d lost her cuddle buddy.

“I’m kind of serious, though. Maybe you being there would help.”

“I can’t see how.”

“He seems pretty relaxed near you and you’re able to comfort him. Who knows?” Rann didn’t know what Reya was imagining, but she seemed to be seriously considering the idea as she fell into her thoughts. “Are we finishing this movie or not?” Reya snapped out of her musings and nodded, turning her focus back to the screen.

Rann pushed play and the explosion continued, fire engulfing the space station the characters were on. It wasn’t looking good, and both girls leaned forward to see what happened next. Reya’s earlier fatigue remained, but she forced herself to stay awake throughout the end of the movie, knowing that she was only delaying the inevitable.

Irric swore loudly as he failed yet again to uncorrupt the data from the terminal in front of him. With Tassie’s help, they’d figured out a way for him to connect to the terminals. While he could now interact with the files on the system, the ones he found were all corrupted. He needed to find a way to undo the damage done. He was certain that he could figure it out given enough time.

A thought suddenly struck him. He quickly called for Nadi to guide him out of the restricted section and towards a functioning terminal in the non-restricted portion of the facility. Excitedly, he packed away his equipment into his bag, ready for a change in scenery.

Nadi arrived several minutes later. “What do you need that’s so important?” She’d dealt little with Irric since dropping him off at his work post upon his arrival. Leaning against the doorway, she studied the mess of electronics littering the floor as Irric hurriedly packed them back into his bag.

“I think I’ve found a way to crack their corruption. For that, I need access to non-corrupted code. Tell me, there are other terminals here on site, correct?”

“That’s right, why?”

“If I’m right, then these terminals,” Irric patted the one next to him, “aren’t part of their main servers. They’re entirely independent from the rest. That means that, in theory, only these ones should be corrupted. I might be able to read the data from other terminals to help fix these ones so that I can access their contents.” He launched into an explanation that flew right over Nadi’s head, who was forced to stop him because she couldn’t understand.

“That’s enough. I’ll bring you to where you need to go, just spare me the details,” she said, rubbing her temples. A headache was beginning to form and whatever convoluted nonsense Irric was spouting was only making it worse.

Irric was put out that he couldn’t demonstrate his brilliance but pushed ahead in simpler terms for his muscle-headed co-worker. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t understand his genius. “I just need you to bring me to a functioning terminal so I can do my work.”

“Why didn’t you just say so sooner?” Nadi said sweetly.

“I did,” Irric deadpanned.

Nadi shrugged. “Whatever you say. Follow me, I’ll bring you to where you need to go.” While Irric had a map of the compound, it didn’t actually tell him what was in each room, only their locations. Winding their way through the corridors, they arrived at a room that contained many terminals on the other end of the compound. Irric guessed that this was the non-restricted section’s equivalent of a control room.

The room was a mirror image of the one he’d just been in. The only things missing were the large, floating DNA strands in the centre. Rows upon rows of terminals were neatly ordered. He noticed the green bloodstains on the ground, indicating that there had been resistance there when taking over the compound. Idly, he compared them to the ones in the other control room, noting that there were far less.

Much to his delight, none of the terminals were smashed in. Picking one at random, he set down his pack on the floor and dug through it. Soon, his data slate was hooked up and he was browsing through their files.

Much of what he found was benign research logs, insight into whatever experiment was happening at the time, but otherwise largely useless. Sifting through all the information took time, and Nadi left him to his work. She’d taken a great interest in uncovering the facility’s secrets but was less than impressed when the results took so long to arrive.

Irric eventually discovered a series of video files in one particular folder. He wasn’t able to translate the folder’s name, so he had no idea what they were about. He did notice that one file in particular was much longer than the others. Opening the first one, he braced himself for what he was about to see.

Reya appeared onscreen half naked and bleeding from long gashes along her sides and back, much to his surprise. She was in a small room seated at a table with her arms cuffed to it. The angle was odd but showed the entirety of the scene. Several gru’ul were gathered in the room with her, along with several objects placed on the metal table Reya was bound to.

She looked terrified. Irric watched with rapt attention as the questioning session began. At first, she refused to answer. Undeterred by her lack of response, the gru’ul decided to encourage her to be more forthcoming. His eyes went wide when he saw one of the gru’ul approach and grab her arm. Using one of its wicked claws, it gouged a single line deep into her flesh. Reya bit back a scream as blood welled from the wound.

They repeated their questions. When she still didn’t speak, they took out a small, pitch-black vial. Using a stopper, they dripped several drops of a burnt orange liquid along the length of her wound. This time, Reya screamed. She strained against her restraints as her feet stomped on the ground in an attempt to distract herself from the pain. Irric didn’t know what the substance was, but he didn’t need to. He felt himself grow pale as the session continued, more gouges rent into her flesh.

Each time, she was doused with the orange substance. Each time, she broke down begging for them to stop. Each time, she somehow refused to answer them. When they were finished, they let her bleed and suffer for a while. Once they’d had enough, they injected her with another substance, and Irric watched as the bleeding stopped before his eyes, her skin healing at a visible rate, leaving a scar in its place.

The video ended and the next one played automatically. Reya looked worse for wear. Exhaustion seeped in and she was pale and sickly. This video played out much like the last, but Irric watched as the number of wounds adorning her body grew. Having had enough of the torture, Irric tried making it stop. No matter what he did, the video kept playing. He was forced to watch it until the end, Reya’s screams filling the room.

Desperately, he typed in commands to make it stop. Instead, he skipped to one of the last videos. A skeletal Reya appeared onscreen, covered in blood. Her pant legs had been cut away, revealing rows of scars trailing up her legs. She was slumped in her chair as her back bled freely. Irric stared at her state. Tassie had said they’d found her in a bad condition but watching her now really drove home what that meant.

This time there were three gru’ul onscreen. After a short conversation, it was decided to inject her with a new substance. Reya no longer had the strength to resist as one of them approached with a syringe in hand. Irric thought himself prepared for what was to come.

He was not.

He fled the room, utterly green, unable to stomach Reya’s horrible shrieks. They were unlike anything the previous videos had to offer.

He returned several minutes later to her still screaming and left again. The next time he returned, Reya was mercifully silent, unresponsive within the now-red-lit room. He let the video play out, unsure of how much more time remained. Reya woke back up screaming, startling Irric. Not long after, she returned unconscious, much to both of their relief.

When the video finally ended, Irric ensured that he closed it properly. Transferring the files onto his data slate, he prepared them to be sent off to the General. She needed to know what he’d found. It might not be what she was hoping for, but it was a start.

Irric decided that he’d had enough of the horrors contained on the terminal he was studying and decided to try his luck elsewhere. He returned to the restricted section and continued sifting through the files there, hoping to find some that weren’t fully corrupted. For hours, he sat there trying to find something, anything.

Much to his surprise, he managed to uncover a single uncorrupted video file. He drew it up to his screen reluctantly, hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as the last. Adrian appeared onscreen, instantly drawing Irric’s attention.

He’d only seen Adrian once before, briefly, when he’d arrived on base. Irric’s hand hovered over his data slate as he pondered whether he truly wanted to watch whatever horror it had in store. He pressed play.

Irric had thought Reya’s screams were harrowing. Adrian’s were worse.

Irric stepped out of the room and made his way towards the nearest room where he was promptly sick. No being should ever make that kind of sound. He returned back to his room and prepared the file to also be sent to the General, alongside those pertaining to Reya.

Grimly, he set himself back to the task of uncovering anything else he could on the broken terminal. Knowing Adrian had been a test subject and actually seeing him being experimented on were two entirely separate things.

Running a hand through his hair, Irric leaned back into his chair. He didn’t think he was going to sleep that night and could only imagine what it must have been like living through those horrors. He definitely wasn’t paid enough for this job, if today was any indication of what else he was going to find.

Nadi cast a furtive glance around her. She didn’t have much time. Irric was gone and she didn’t know when he’d be back. Quickly, she made her way to the terminal where he was working and took a drive out of her pocket. She connected it to Irric’s unattended data slate and watched it flash a bright red.

She waited patiently for the data to finish transferring, watching the blinking device until it turned green. She could only hope that Irric didn’t return right at that moment. Nadi yanked the chip out of the data slate and palmed it into her pocket. Fingers crossed, she left the room.

An empty hallway greeted her. Letting out a sigh of relief, she began making her way back to the non-restricted section. She rounded the corner and nearly bowled straight into Irric. She took a quick step back, her heart leaping to her throat as she narrowly avoided colliding with the last person she wanted to meet. Irric flinched backwards out of reflex. Inwardly, Nadi cursed her rotten luck.

“Nadi,” he said in surprise, “what are you doing here?”

“Commander Cyrix wanted me to remind you about your meeting with him later. He was a bit miffed when you skipped out on the last one because you had your nose buried in your work.”

“Oh,” Irric said sheepishly. “Couldn’t you have told me that over our comms?”

“I could’ve, but I was nearby. This way I get a small break from patrolling empty halls all while doing my job. Win-win for me.”

“I see.”

“Anyways, don’t be late. I’m off.” She waved as she turned around to leave. “Tell the Commander I did what he asked of me when you speak with him.”

Nadi continued her patrol so that nothing appeared to be out of place. When her shift ended, she made her way back to her room and locked the door. Grabbing her personal data slate, she connected the drive and sent away its contents to its recipients.