The Genesis Saga

“I’m concerned,” Nessah said into her data slate. The door to her office was locked and the others were under strict orders not to disturb her while she worked. Cyrix stared back at her onscreen. “That makes multiple mentions of some kind of mandate. It’s like they emphasise it on purpose.”

“I agree,” Cyrix said. “The research reports that Irric found all reference it, yet none of them actually explain what it is. We’ll have to keep searching to discover more. It might help us uncover the facility’s true purpose.”

“Has he made any headway on the corrupted data?”

“No. He says that repairing it will take time. Something about having to learn what the virus that corrupted it actually did in the first place. He seemed about ready to pull out his hair,” Cyrix chuckled. “He says that we should focus our energy on the non-restricted section, where we can actually read the information contained in the terminals.”

“That makes sense. Have we found anything useful?”

“Mostly isolated research logs. Without the proper authentication, it’s hard to access most of the documents. Irric isn’t worried about that, however. He says he should have a solution in a couple of weeks.”

“Weeks? He can’t do it sooner?”

“He said, and I quote, ‘if you’re not happy, then do it yourself.’ He claims that the speed he’s working at is already impressive.”

Nessah sighed and leaned back into her chair. What they had tasked him with had never been done before, so she couldn’t fault him for taking whatever time he required to get the job done. “Fine. Is Tassie working with him to speed things up?”

“Yes. She’s been working long hours remotely alongside Irric to get the job done. If the two of them can’t figure it out, we’re in trouble.”

“Has she seen Reya’s videos?”

“No. Irric has only showed the two of us the videos, as far as I know. That and the other one he found.”

Nessah nodded, relieved. She didn’t have the time to handle the fallout if her team got their hands on their friend’s torture sessions. “Good. Make sure it stays that way. We can’t risk a leak until we’ve got more information. What have we learned from the non-restricted section so far?”

“The facility appears to be a genetics lab. We’ve uncovered several rooms full of preserved animals that look like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Some of them are severely deformed. It’s a bit disturbing, if I’m being honest.”

“That is worrying, but at least now we know what to expect from our findings. What have we learned from their ships so far?”

“We’ve been analysing their weaponry. Our engineers think they’ve found a way to replicate it. It appears to be some kind of energy beam. If the gouges and craters in the ravines and canyons are anything to go by, whatever it is must be quite powerful.”

Nessah brightened at the news. “That’s fantastic. We should—” Before finishing her sentence her call was interrupted by a summons from the Tribunal. Knowing that she couldn’t ignore it, she bid Cyrix goodbye and hung up.

Her mind raced as she underwent the biometric scans required to access the only other door in her office. She walked into the room with her data slate in hand, locking the door behind her. She made her way to the wooden podium in the centre. The entire Tribunal stared down at her as she gripped it for support.

Elder Kaius had a serene smile on his face, giving away nothing as he looked around the room. “Now that the General is present, we may continue our discussion.” Kaius turned his attention towards Nessah. “General, if you would be so kind as to enlighten us as to the discoveries made regarding the research facility.”

Nessah steeled herself for the potential backlash at her lack of results. “Thus far, we’ve discovered very little. The facility appears to be a genetics lab, though what, exactly, was being studied remains unknown. We’ve managed to extract a few reports from their databases, but without proper context, they’re all but useless to us. I’ve been informed that it will be a few more weeks at the earliest before we can get more pertinent information.”

Displeasure filled the air. The Elders murmured amongst each other, wondering why so little progress had been made. “Is there a reason for such delays?” Kaius asked, lending a voice to the others’ questions. Once more, Nessah became the centre of attention.

“We’re attempting to hack an entirely alien database. We’ve had very little interaction with their machines before this, not to mention that we have to translate everything as we go. This takes time.”

“Surely, you’ve found something,” Cirrus said rudely. Being told that they were squandering their opportunity because of bad translations soured her mood rather quickly. Her patience was running thin and she wanted answers.

“As a matter of fact, we have uncovered something. During our investigation, we discovered the gru’uls’ love of documentation. We’ve found videos from Miss Ayala’s time in captivity.”

“This is the soldier who was tortured by them, correct? The one we awarded the Silver Star to?” Kaius asked for clarification.

“Yes. While the compilation does not encompass her entire time there, it does provide us a window into what she endured during her, how should I put it, questioning sessions. Her footage was kept on a separate data terminal and was only just recently discovered.”

“Show us,” Cirrus ordered.

“Permission to be honest?” Nessah requested. She looked at Kaius for confirmation.

“Granted,” he said.

“I don’t want to. I’ll show you some of it, but I won’t release all of it until later. I want you to decide if you truly want to see it after witnessing a single session.”

“Do you think us unable to handle seeing what happened to our soldier?” Cirrus challenged.

“Perhaps viewing it at our leisure would be best,” Orryn suggested. “I’m sure that not all of us here want to witness the barbarity that gave our soldier her scars.”

“I disagree,” Cirrus said. “I say that we see what we ordered our soldier into. I want to know if it was truly worth us assigning such a high-ranking reward over.” Kaius put the motion to a vote. It passed five to two. He ordered Nessah to play part of the video.

“I’m warning you now, what you’re going to see is disturbing. It’s literal torture,” Nessah said. Using her data slate, she brought up one of Reya’s first sessions. An image of Reya seated in her chair appeared onscreen. The Elders could see the defiance still in her eyes as she staunchly refused to answer the questions she was asked. Dried blood clung to her forearm from previous sessions.

They watched in silence as the creature raked its claw across her arm. Blood spilled out of the wound, dripping down her arm and onto the floor around her. Reya screamed in pain. Still, it wasn’t enough. Her tormenter took out a pitch-black vial filled with orange liquid and carefully dripped in into the entirety of her wound. Reya’s bloodcurdling screams filled the room for tens of minutes, with no sign of ending. Nessah refused to pause the video.

When Reya finally quieted, she was a quivering mess of tears. The mechanical voice of the translator echoed as it asked her once more her purpose and intent. Whimpering and crying, Reya still refused to answer their questions. Her tormentors were patient, giving her ample time to collect herself from her ordeal, keenly aware of the toll it took on their subject.

They whispered sweet nothings in her ear in an attempt to convince her to comply. To listen. Finally, when it was clear that Reya wasn’t going to cooperate, they left, promising to return again later with more questions. Nessah paused the video before another session began.

“By the gods,” Orryn said, her face pale. “They did that for every cut?”

Nessah nodded. “It’s a miracle that Miss Ayala didn’t break under the strain.”

“How many sessions are there?”

“Over seventy,” Nessah stated.

Orryn turned green. Even Cirrus looked ill. “You mean we sent her into that and left her there? What was her team doing?”

“Her vitals dropped, indicating she was dead. The team was under heavy fire and was forced to retreat. They were chased out of the planet’s atmosphere by their pursuers and later jumped into hyperspace to return back to base. With their teammate dead, they didn’t want to risk returning so soon.”

“You mentioned that the sessions got worse towards the end,” Cirrus said. “What made them different?”

“The chemical they used on her was refined progressively throughout her time in captivity to be more potent, in the hopes of making her speak. By the end, the cuts were also larger and deeper. And then there’s that substance they injected her with. The one that actually broke her.”

“A simple injection was that much worse?”

“That injection was by no means simple. If you think what you just saw was bad, then you’re not ready for what comes next.”

“Do you have the footage?” Kaius inquired.

Nessah hesitated. “Yes, I do.”

“Show us. Show us what our soldier suffered through for us,” he said grimly.

“I will only show you if this passes as a vote,” Nessah said firmly.

“Even after I ordered you?”

“Yes, Elder. Even after you ordered me.”

“Very well. Let’s put this to a vote. Those against?” Three lights appeared. Orryn was against viewing the footage as expected, but strangely, Cirrus was too. “The motion passes four to three. You have your answer, General.”

Nessah sighed. “I warned you. And I mean it.” She uploaded the footage to the large projector for the entire Tribunal to see. “This is the footage of her last torture session. Notice how a third gru’ul appears. It is the one that will inject her.”

The new image of Reya conjured up looked nothing like the first. Gasps came from around the room as they beheld the difference. She was skeletal and malnourished, slumped over in her chair. A stark contrast to the woman they saw in the previous video. Gone was the fire in her eyes, replaced with defeat and resignation. Gone was her defiance, her resolve.

Her pants had been cut away and she was drenched in her own blood. The scars decorating her body could be seen in spite of the macabre sight. Reya shivered in fear as her captors approached once more. She did not struggle as she had in the first video, merely accepting the result as they slowly maimed her body again, digging a deep gouge in her back. Her weak screams filled the room, her voice hoarse and raw.

The Tribunal watched a smaller gru’ul slip into the room unnoticed, holding a briefcase. It spoke and the translator shared its words for all to hear. The Elders stared with rapt attention as it prepared a syringe full of orange liquid and injected Reya with it.

Her gut-wrenching shrieks did not deserve to be called mere screams.

Nessah heard somebody vomit at the sight as their soldier’s guttural, primal howls filled the room. The footage continued until after the lights turned red and two of the gru’ul retreated out of the room. Nessah forced them to watch until Reya finally passed out, continuing to convulse where she sat. It was only then that Nessah pushed pause.

“The footage stops right as she gets discovered by her teammate. She actually wakes back up screaming before passing out again. Now you know. This is what happened to our soldier.” Nessah tapped at her data slate. “I’ve released the compilation of all of her sessions. It’s a large video. The soldier that discovered it was unable to watch it in its entirety, and not because of the length.”

She looked around the room at the lifelike projections that occupied the seats. Each and every one of them was pallid, and Orryn was clutching a flowerpot, utterly green.

“Are you satisfied now?” Nessah asked. “Because despite all that, our soldier only broke after that last injection. Apparently she was incoherent when they found her. She passed out again shortly after and was unresponsive for weeks.” Nessah turned towards Cirrus and fixed her a level stare. “Do you still believe that such a substance deserves to be used on others?”

Cirrus shook as she swallowed hard. “It deserves to be destroyed. Do we know what it was?”

“No. The files don’t mention what the compound they used was. Just that the results were derived from another experiment.”

“Another experiment?” Kaius asked, homing in on the detail. Nessah winced at her slip up. “Who else did they experiment on?” Nessah remained silent, searching for a reply. She never had the chance, as Kaius continued. “This wouldn’t happen to be the same person you found in the facility, would it?”

Nessah winced. “What does he mean by that, General?” Cirrus demanded. Kaius smiled slyly from where he sat.

“Why, I believe that the General here has been hiding something from us.” A new video appeared onscreen. It showed Adrian strapped to a table, surrounded by gru’ul. There was a collective intake of breath as the video paused, not going any further. The clip was only several seconds long and didn’t show what actually happened.

“Who is this man?” Orryn asked, voicing everybody’s thoughts. “Why is he the wrong colour?” She studied the expression of sheer terror upon the man’s face and guessed that whatever was about to happen mustn’t have been pleasant.

“Strangely enough, one of the teams assigned to investigate the facility has returned to Verilia and has remained here for several weeks in an undisclosed location,” Kaius said, fanning the flames. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you, General?” Nessah swore internally. She glared at Kaius, who sat there with a knowing smile. She was caught and there was no denying it.

Nessah braced herself for what was about to happen. “That man,” she started slowly, “was discovered in what is believed to be a restricted section of the facility. He was rescued by one of my teams when they raided the compound. He was found locked in a cell.”

The room exploded.

Accusations were directed at Nessah and discussion broke out around the man’s identity. She stood there, stone-faced, and waited for the outrage to die down. She glared hatefully towards Kaius, who was waiting for opportunity to speak again.

“General, why have you failed to inform us of such an important discovery?” he asked. Instantly, a room full of sharp gazes homed in on Nessah, intent on hearing her answer. She forced herself to remain calm.

“The man claims to be from another planet, where people all look like him.” She dropped the bombshell and watched with satisfaction as Kaius lost control over his council. She spoke again, cutting off the indignant remarks flying across the room. “Given the extenuating circumstances, I have been trying to determine whether to enact first contact protocols.”

“That’s preposterous!” Cirrus exclaimed. “Clearly they did something to the man that changed the colour of his skin. He must be lying.”

“I find myself in agreement with Cirrus, for once,” Orryn spoke up. “The theory is a tad far-fetched. What makes you so certain of his claims?”

“I’m not, which is why I was hoping to extract information from the gru’ul databases before determining whether he’s telling the truth. Regardless of the man’s claims, it’s clear that he was used as a living test subject. I was afraid that scrutinizing and studying the man would make us no better than the gru’ul, so I did my best to keep him from prying eyes until I figured out how to deal with him.”

“You would dare to compare us to them?” Cirrus squawked.

“Can you honestly claim that you have no desire to crack him open and learn what they did to him?” Nessah asked bluntly. Cirrus had no response. Nessah looked at each person. Not a single one was able to meet her gaze, Kaius included. “My point exactly. What we have here is a severely traumatized man who underwent unspeakable horrors. This is a person, not a thing. It’s best we don’t forget that.”

“He might contain valuable information,” Cirrus pressed. “Information that we can use.”

“Do you truly believe that the subject, of all people, knows the details about what they did to him?” Nessah asked flatly. Snickers echoed around the room. Cirrus flushed a deep shade of purple and opened her mouth to reply, before closing it, lest she make a further fool out of herself.

“Where is he now, then?” Orryn inquired.

“I’m currently keeping him at one of our safe houses in an undisclosed location, where he has no chance of being discovered.”

“Why not keep him on base?”

“Can you imagine the uproar that’s going to happen when this gets out? Because this will get out,” Nessah stressed. “We need time to figure out what to do with him. I decided that the best way to get him to talk and give us the time we need was to put him in a safe environment where he could recover from his ordeal. Already, he has begun to share his knowledge about his planet and society with us. He has even given us some of their science.”

The whole room broke into discussion at the thought of receiving alien technology. “What has he shown us?” Cirrus asked eagerly. “Weapons? Transport systems? Improvements for communications?”

“How to build musical instruments.” The room fell into a disappointed silence. “Unfortunately, it appears that he was a musician, not a scientist. What he has given us, however, are novel ways to apply our existing knowledge to the world around us. I imagine that he thinks revealing such aspects of his society’s technology is harmless. I assure you, they’re not.”

“Can we get a sample of what he’s divulged?” Orryn asked. “I, for one, am interested. Even if it’s just musical instruments.”

“I already have a team working on constructing the remarkably detailed schematics he’s provided us with. I intend to send him some of our samples so that we learn how to use them, as well as receive feedback on their make.”

Cirrus scoffed. “You can’t possibly think that instruments, of all things, matter! Who cares? Does he know anything useful?”

“I don’t know. Only time will tell.”

“Do you have anything for us then?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. Elder Kaius neglected to show you the entirety of that video. It would be my pleasure,” Nessah purred, “to enlighten you on its contents.” She took great delight in uploading the part of the compilation that Kaius neglected to show the council. She recognized the point in the video that Kaius showed. It was from the beginning of the compilation. She didn’t know how he got a hold of it, but she was going to find a way to make him pay for it.

Nessah very carefully selected several minutes’ worth of video. She didn’t understand what the gru’uls’ fascination was with documenting everything they did, but it worked to her advantage in this case. The video started with Adrian being strapped to the table. He resisted fiercely and shouted in a language none of them understood.

Despite the language barrier, it was clear that he was terrified. His struggling intensified, necessitating two of the gru’ul to keep in place long enough for a third one to strap him in. All four of their arms were used to pin him down, cutting into him and making him bleed. Finally strapped to the table, a fourth gru’ul approached with a syringe filled with purple liquid. Adrian strained against his restraints, trying desperately to get away. Unable to move, he could offer no real resistance as he got injected with the mysterious substance.

The Tribunal was not prepared for Adrian’s horrifying, nightmare inducing screams.

His back arched unnaturally as his eyes rolled back into his head. Nessah looked around the room and saw more than one Elder avert their gaze from the ghastly scene in front of them. By the time Nessah paused the video on Adrian’s unresponsive form, every single Elder in the room, Kaius included, was green.

“Do you still want to strap him down and open him up? Because this is just a small fraction of what he went through. I don’t see how such a thing could be considered humane.”

“How is the man not insane?” Orryn whispered loud enough for Nessah to hear.

“The story doesn’t say. Thus far, he’s been well-behaved. Maybe one day he’ll tell us what happened, but I really don’t suggest that we try to force him. And even if he does speak up about it, I doubt he’d ever be able to give us anything truly useful.”

Small debates broke out about what to do about Adrian. Nessah and Kaius let them rage for several minutes without interrupting. Eventually, Orryn spoke up. “Would it be possible to meet him? I’d like to judge the man for myself before contemplating what to do next. He’s too much of an unknown to just leave be.”

“I agree,” Cirrus said. “I’d also like to meet the man, maybe get him to talk about his supposed society a little more. You never know what secrets you can glean from mundane conversation.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Kaius said, cutting off Nessah’s protest. “The General here can organise a visit, since I think we can all agree that bringing the man in question back on base would be a terrible idea. I myself would like to go as well, but I’ll leave the preliminary meeting to Cirrus and Orryn. I can always go visit at a later date if need be.”

Nessah bit her tongue. There was no way out of this. Everything she’d worked so hard to hide went up in smoke. “I understand,” she said through gritted teeth, trying to mask her displeasure. “As it turns out, the team in charge of protecting him is in need of making a supply run soon. I propose that we return with them for a visit.” If she couldn’t control whether they would visit Adrian, she could at least make it on her own terms. This would give her some time to prepare.

Kaius preened. “Excellent. Begin making preparations immediately. I await the results.” Cirrus and Orryn shared a glance, happy that they were the ones chosen among the Tribunal to make first contact with Adrian. “That is all, General. You are dismissed for now. Do try to keep us informed about any new discoveries you make at the facility.”

Nessah bowed, hiding her unpleasant expression. It was gone by the time she raised her head. “Of course, Elder Kaius.” She turned and left the room as the holograms winked out of existence to continue their private meeting.

She could only pray that Adrian would be ready to meet with the Elders that would soon be on their way.